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Sticker of Tiger bee fly
Bug card No. 1346 of 1,500

Tiger bee fly

Xenox tigrinus
Name means: “tigrinus means tiger-like, after the tiger pattern on its wings”

The tiger bee fly is a big black fly with see-through wings covered in bold black blotches, like tiger stripes. It hovers in the air like a bee, so many people think it is one. But it is a fly, and it cannot sting at all.

Lives in
Eastern USA and southern Canada, often near wooden fences, porches and roofs
Length
1.2 to 1.9 cm (0.47 to 0.75 in)
Top speed
about 12 km/h (7.5 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It looks a bit scary, but it does not bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
The grown-up fly drinks nectar from flowers. Its babies are sneaky: they live inside carpenter bee nests and eat the young bees.
For real!Photo of Tiger bee fly
Picture by Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Tiger bee fly about 1.9 cm long (0.75 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 3 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 32 secondsmoves 180 times its own body length every second

How big is Tiger bee fly compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The mother fly does not go into the bee nest. She drops her eggs near the entrance, and the babies crawl in by themselves.

2

Like all flies, it has only one pair of wings that work. Bees have two pairs.

3

Looking like a bee helps it, because many animals stay away from things that might sting.

4

When it visits flowers for nectar, it can help carry pollen too.

5

You often see it near wooden fences and roofs, because that is where carpenter bees make their nests.

you asked

Most asked questions about Tiger bee fly

?Can a tiger bee fly sting?

No. It looks like a bee, but it is a fly and cannot bite or sting.

?What does the tiger bee fly eat?

The adult drinks flower nectar. Its larvae live in carpenter bee nests and eat the young bees.

?How big is the tiger bee fly?

Its body is about 12 to 19 millimetres long, as big as a large bee.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Xenox tigrinus
Named by
De Geer, 1776
Group
Flies and mosquitoes
Family
Bombyliidae
Classification
Insecta > Diptera > Bombyliidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Tiger bee fly (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Rhododendrites. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Flies and mosquitoes

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