Subject: Large Black “Fly”
Geographic location of the bug: Sanford, North Carolina
Date: 07/11/2022
Time: 01:49 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: This large, black, flying insect started hanging around our deck in June. Never comes near people or food. Have observed it staying in one spot – always in the sun – for to 20 minutes. We are new to life in the Carolinas and have never seen this insect before. Thank you for your help!
How you want your letter signed: Susan Elizabeth
Tiger Bee Fly
Dear Susan Elizabeth,
This magnificent creature is a Tiger Bee Fly, Xenox tigrinus, a species that does not provide for its young, but rather, it parasitizes the nest of Eastern Carpenter Bees. The larval Bee Flies will feed on the larvae of the Carpenter Bees as well as the food provisioned by the female Carpenter Bee for her brood. Eric Eaton once wrote to us that “if it has a mouth, it can bite” but Tiger Bee Flies are not aggressive toward people and we know of no documented accounts of a person being bitten by one.
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