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Glite Dictionary
bee fly

bee fly

8.7
A hairy fly that looks like a bee and whose young eat baby bees
  • noun
  • /biː flaɪ/
translation icon : mosca de las abejas
  • I spotted a bee fly resting on the petal, its fuzzy body blending with the flowers.

Examples

  • The larva of the bee fly is known to parasitize the nests of real bees.

  • Minute, young, predatory larvae of bee flies and robber flies slip through the silica, searching for grubs and clutches of grasshopper eggs.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The bee fly hovered near the blossoms, eagerly sipping nectar.

Synonyms

Bombyliidae
vsbee fly
  • Specialized
9.9

A hairy fly that looks like a bee and visits flowers

is the common term for individual hairy nectar feeding flies in that family

Surface Forms

bee fly singular
bee flies plural

Morphology

bee + fly

The compound is a straightforward modifier + head construction (bee + fly) indicating a type of fly associated with or resembling a bee, so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it is a fly that looks like or is related to bees. This follows a common cross-linguistic noun-compounding pattern, so the basic meaning is compositional and transparent even if specialized biological details (e.g., parasitic larvae) may require extra knowledge.

Etymology

Bee fly names a kind of insect that looks like a fuzzy bee but is really a fly. Many of these flies sip nectar like bees and their young live in bee nests, so the name links the animal's bee-like look and life with bees and today means 'a fly that looks like and is connected to bees'.