A staple of a talk about pollinators is a comparison of bees and flies—how to tell them apart. It is usually noted that flies have two wings (one pair) while bees have four wings (two pairs). It is often difficult to spot that distinction in the field.
But, the differences in antennae are easier to spot in the field: the bee’s are long, the fly’s are short.
Below are two pictures. The top one is a bumble bee (Bombus bifarius); the bottom one is a hover fly mimic of that bee (Criorhina sp.). Despite a similarity that would fool the most discerning bird, the antennae are strikingly different. These were both seen on the same April day on the blossoms of a Pieris japonica growing along the lakeshore.
The Kootenay-Lake Website offers a discussion and more pictures of the local social bees and flies.
