Bombyliidae

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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Bombyliidae | image = Lepidophora_lepidocera.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = Adult bee-fly Lepidophora lepidocera | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Arthropoda | classis = Insecta | ordo = Diptera | subordo = Brachycera | superfamilia = Asiloidea | familia = Bombyliidae | subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies | subdivision = Many, among them :

Subfamily Anthracinae
Subfamily Antoniinae
Subfamily Bombyliinae
Subfamily Cythereinae
Subfamily Ecliminae
Subfamily Heterotropinae
Subfamily Lomatiinae
Subfamily Phthiriinae
Subfamily Tomomyzinae
Subfamily Toxophorinae
Subfamily Usiinae

}}

Bombyliidae is a large family of flies with hundreds of genera, although their life cycles are not well known. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of flowers. They superficially resemble bees, thus are commonly called bee flies, and this may offer the adults some protection from predators.

The larval stage are predators or parasitoids of other insect eggs and larvae. The adult females usually deposit eggs in the vicinity of possible hosts, quite often in the burrows of beetles or wasps/solitary bees. Where most often in the insect world parasitoids are highly specific in the host species that they will infect, it is thought that bombyliids are opportunistic and will use a variety of hosts.

While bombyliids have a great variety of species, rarely are individuals of any one species abundant, and this is perhaps one of the poorest known families of insects. There are at least 4,500 described species, and probably thousands as of yet undescribed.

Species include:

Major bee-fly (Bombylius major)
Williston's bee-fly (Poecilanthrax willistoni)
Bomber fly (Heterostylum robustum)

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References

Template:Cite journal
Template:Cite journal
Bowden, J. (1980) Family Bombyliidae. pp. 381–430. In R.W. Crosskey (ed.), Catalogue of the Diptera of the Afrotropical Region, 1437 pp., London: British Museum (Natural History)

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