It’s getting onto late-August. An attempt to duplicate a photo of a year ago has so far been unsuccessful. On the first day of August, a year prior, an unusual fly posed for a photo. Apparently at Angelkeep the insect was not as common as Googled websites suggested might be the case in the eastern part of the United States.
Research during the year identified the fly pictured hanging around Angelkeep’s rear patio. The Ohio State University provided the identity plus good details. Apparently Ohio was considered “Eastern United States” to the fly-like insect. Perhaps Angelkeep’s visitor was a wandering fly interested in expanding the insect specie’s westward movement.
The wings caught the attention of Angelkeep and the eye of the camera. At rest the fly held its wings outward. The outline appeared much like a stealth bomber, except the wing design pattern included transparent segments among black units. It all looked like a stealth bomber constructed out of clear and black glass, in a leaded glass form of construction. Angelkeep’s stealth bomber bug measured about five-eighths inch nose to tail, with a wing span over an inch. It also contained two white abdomen spots, standard design according to the Buckeyes.
OSU informed Angelkeep to call it a Tiger Bee Fly, or Xenox tigrinus. It also indicated it had previously, beginning in 1776, been named Anthrax tigrinus. Angelkeep typically used common names but the early inclusion of Anthrax in the name certainly seemed a wakeup call.
How dangerous was this beautiful, black, stealth bomber fly, if its name once included Anthrax? The Buckeye data claimed the “Tiger” portion of the name came from the wing markings, the “Bee” namesake resultant of it belonging to the Bombyliidae family commonly called “bee flies.” To be a Bombyliidae you have to be a fly but mimic a bee.
Those Buckeye’s assured Angelkeep that Tiger Bee Fly was harmless to humans. Tiger Bee Flies neither bite nor sting humans. The story of this insect turned sinister, especially if you happen to be born a bee. It gets worse.
The larvae stage of Tiger Bee Fly identified as a parasitoid. Parasitoids kill their hosts as a parasite. Tiger Bee Fly specifically feasts as parasitoid on carpenter bee larvae. Angelkeep became home to many fine pollinator carpenter bees. They drill into exposed lumber on a decorative arch in the front of the house and on exposed treated lumber forming the overhead deck above the backyard patio. This explained the Tiger Bee Fly being observed and photographed in 2023 on the patio.
Angelkeep’s stealth bomber Tiger Bee Fly was likely about to drop its “bombs.”
TBF females lay eggs near the carpenter bee entrance holes made where they lay eggs. The born larvae (maggots) crawl into the carpenter tunnels and feed on the pollen balls stored there by Mama Carpenter to feed her own emerging maggots/larvae. That’s theft.
It seemed interesting that God provided the eighth commandment, “Thou shall not steal,” but created Tiger Bee Fly to steal rather than harvest. It gets worse. Commandment six, “Thou shall not murder.”
After TBF steals the carpenter bee’s eats, TBF moves on to the carpenter larvae. It doesn’t kill and consume outright. It gets worse.
TBF larvae literally attached to the carpenter larvae and began sucking out the essence. Tiger Bee Fly was not a stealth bomber but a vampire, of sorts. The two larvae attached by the vampire bite of TBF grew as a single body. The carpenter bee larva loses and slowly, mercilessly, converted into a dried, wrinkled husk. Meanwhile TBF grew big, plump, and the maggot pupated. It didn’t get any worse than that.
Scientists believed Tiger Bee Fly females laid two to three thousand eggs. Not all were deployed at the carpenter bee’s nursery entrance. Apparently some grew up without the vampire stage.
A search continued for more TBF at Angelkeep. We certainly don’t want the neighbors to have more Tiger Bee Flies than Angelkeep.
Commandment ten: “Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s…”
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
