Bee Fly – Anthracinae – Villa sp. No. 04

Order Diptera; Suborder Brachycera; Family Bombyliidae (Bee Flies); Subfamily: Anthracinae; Provisional scientific name: Villa sp. (WA – Lake Cronin NR); Common name: Bee Fly – Female coating eggs with sand grains to protect them against detection by predatory insects near the targeted insect burrow - Description: Very dark, almost black, unpatterned fly with some scattered adpressed, silvery-white hairs on the thorax; these hairs are more prominent and denser on the front third of the abdomen in the female; adpressed hairs on the terminal third of the female’s abdomen beige; collar brown with some white hairs admixed; facial hairs between eyes black; wings clear - Distribution in Australia: Western Australia – Photographed: in December, in Lake Cronin Nature Reserve in Goldfields Region.