# Entomologists: identify this crazy bee?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 15, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674 "2006-07-15T23:56:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2006, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674/1 "2006-07-15T23:56:48Z")
Alas, I don’t have a picture, but I saw this crazy-looking bee in the garden this afternoon. I looked for a picture on the web and couldn’t find one that approximated it, even.
It was big (maybe 1 inch long in total) with a very shiny ‘backside’ in a black-and-yellow stripe pattern. The most remarkable thing was its wings: they were brown in colour and huge, by far the biggest wings I’ve even seen on a bee. They looked like they belonged to a totally different insect, a moth or flying beetle or something.
Now, I know nothing really about bee-species, so maybe this is a normal variation, but I thought I would ask here…
Cheers,
Daphne
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2006, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674/2 "2006-07-16T00:02:41Z")
[Carpenter bee?](http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef611.htm)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2006, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674/3 "2006-07-16T00:09:37Z")
Yellow stripy abdomen and brown wings sounds like a hornet of some kind.
> **[Hornet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornet)**
>
> See text
> Hornets (insects in the genus Vespa) are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to 5.5 cm (2.2 in) in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by the relatively large top margin of the head. Worldwide, 22 species of Vespa are recognized. Most species only occur in the tropics of Asia, though the European hornet (V. crabro) is widely distributed throughout Europe, Russia, North A...
Or it could be a bee-mimic moth of some kind, like this one:
[http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/name\_c/a\_302.htm](http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/name_c/a_302.htm)
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### Author:  [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674/4 "2006-07-16T00:40:11Z")
One of [these things](http://www.agpix.com/view_caption.php?image_id=168)? They call it a Williston’s bee fly. Looks creepy!
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### Author:  [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2006, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674/5 "2006-07-16T08:17:00Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Or it could be a bee-mimic moth of some kind, like this one:
> [http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/name\_c/a\_302.htm](http://www.ento.csiro.au/aicn/name_c/a_302.htm)
It looks most like this one - but I’m not in Australia (rather the Chicago area), so I don’t know if that is even possible.
Thanks, everyone - it sure was a weird bug. If I see it again I will try to get a picture!
D.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entomologists-identify-this-crazy-bee/364674/6 "2006-07-17T01:39:52Z")
There are bee-mimic moths in the UK, along with some that are just sort of stripy in a way that may or may not mimic bees.
Let’s try an identity parade:
[Acherontia atropos (Death’s head hawkmoth)](http://www3.telus.net/conrad/images/acherontia-atropos.jpg)
[Sesia apiformis (Hornet Moth)](http://insektenfotos.de/Sesia%20apiformis%20(Hornissenglasfluegler)_002.jpg) (a strikingly effective hornet mimic)
[Hemaris fuciformis (Broad bordered bee-moth)](http://www.toyen.uio.no/norlep/images/sphingidae_f/fuciformis.jpg)