This week, the question was: What is foraging in this cantaloupe flower?
This little critter looks a lot like a bee (it’s yellow, fuzzy, and foraging flowers), but if you look closely, you’ll see it has only one pair of wings (bees have two). This feature distinguishes this as a fly, specifically a bee fly (family Bombyliidae). Though they look similar, these flies grow up very differently from bees. Bee flies are parasitic and develop on the larvae and pupae of other insects, such as wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths, grasshoppers, and other flies. Read more about bee flies here.
This week’s question comes from Midlands Extension Agent Justin Ballew.
The South Carolina Grower 