Bee-fly on an Easter flower

The flower in my picture here is commonly called an Easter daffodil. The insect on the daffodil is often mistaken for a bee. It also has some of the characteristics of the larger hummingbird clearwing hawk moth.

This odd-looking insect is actually a bee mimic called a bee-fly. There are thousands of different kinds and sizes of bee-flies across the world. Most of them seek nectar to feed upon and are important pollinator insects.

Rarely does the bee-fly come inside a house. Rather, they prefer to live in forest and field.

This one has a body length of about 1/2 inch with a wingspan of about 3/4 inch. Its proboscis (tongue) is quite long comparative to its head. Bee-flies are very active during warm spring days around flowers. You can find them hovering and flitting from flower to flower, often not actually resting or climbing inside the flower. Most of the bee-flies I have seen were active on warm or hot, dry days during the evening before the sun goes down.