The bee fly is a specialist insect which feeds on the nectar of these flowering plants using its long proboscis. This feeding inadvertently provides early pollination of the flowers. The fly mimics a bumble bee but you can tell the difference due to its hovering behavior. The bee fly looks very much like a hover fly. This parasitic insect lays its larva in the burrow of a solitary bee, the solitary bee then unsuspectingly tends to the bee fly larva until it eventually leaves the burrow and can be seen in the park from early March.