Black-Tailed Bee Flies Are Not Averse to Elementary's Dead Man's Switch

Summary: Black-tailed bee flies are likelier to arrive on brownstone rooftops than in mouths open in amazement on Elementary's Dead Man's Switch April 25, 2013.

greater bee fly (Bombylius major), also known as black-tailed beefly; G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area, ridge top western portion, Linden, Northern Virginia; Jan. 1, 2000: Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Black-tailed bee flies appear among the New York native fly species that perhaps avoid mouths wide open in astonishment on Elementary procedural drama television series episode Dead Man's Switch April 25, 2013.

Director Larry Teng and writers Liz Friedman and Christopher Silber begin the first season's 20th episode with Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) beautifying his arm tattoos. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) considers herself capable and caring even as she challenges Sherlock's creativity and credentials concerning conserving body tattoos, where she claims no competence. Sherlock demurs, "I am an actual tattoo artist," when Joan declares, "Well, wouldn't it be easier if someone else did it, like an actual tattoo artist."

Sherlock endures Joan's dismissive facial and verbal expressions with, "Close your mouth, Watson. You'll catch a fly" before explaining, "I did a lot of these myself."

Ms. Hudson (Candis Cayne) functions as the Holmes brownstone housekeeper since Snow Angels April 4, 2013, so house flies (Musca domestica) find neither filth nor food.

Perhaps black-tailed bee flies, as bumblebee (Bombus) and honeybee (Apis) mimics, go from New York City parks all the way to the Holmes brownstone's rooftop hives. The Holmes brownstone has neither nectar-heavy flowers nor sunny-banked burrows for black-tailed bee flies that hover hummingbird-like during feeding, mating and nesting seasons March through June. Black-tailed bee flies, identified by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10. 1778), install 0.19-inch (0.5-millimeter) eggs in Andrena (mining), Colletes (plasterer) and Halictus (sweat) bee nests.

Black-tailed bee flies journey from white-yellow egg stages to hatched larval and maggot stages respectively feeding upon host food stores and host larval and pupal stages.

Black-tailed bee flies, known as big, dark-bordered or greater bee flies and as Bombylius major (from Greek βόμβος, "buzzing" and Latin maior, "greater"), keep bee-like behavior.

Black-tailed bee fly life cycles link eggs; mobile, slender larvae (from Latin lārva, "ghost"); chunky, sedentary maggots; and bristled, hooked pupae (from Latin pūpa, "girl") stages. Three hundred wingbeats per second move black-topped, brown- and red-legged, brown- and yellow-bodied physically and sexually mature black-tailed bee flies backward and forward, downward and upward. Big-eyed, mature black-tailed bee flies net non-biting, non-stinging parts; 0.47- to 0.71-inch- (12- to 18-millimeter-) long bodies; and 0.98-inch (24-millimeter) by 0.16-inch (4-millimeter) clear-bottomed, dark-topped wings.

Their black, 0.22- to 0.28-inch- (5.5- to 7-millimeter-) long proboscis offers black-tailed bee flies, unless obstructed by ambush bugs (Reduviidae) and crab spiders (Thomisidae), nutritious nectars.

Black-tailed bee flies pollinate cultivated and wild flowers, with crabapple (Malus), dandelions (Taraxacum), lilac (Syringa), plum (Prunus), primroses (Primula), spring-beauty (Claytonia) and violets (Viola) as priorities.

Black-tailed bee flies queue up continentally everywhere except Antarctica and quest bare-patched soil for nesting and cultivated garden and wild field, meadow, woodland flowers for nectaring. They require old, open, sunny coastlines, farmlands, fields, forest and woodland edges, forests, gardens, glades, grasslands, heathlands, hedgerows, meadows, moorlands, parks, quarries, roadsides, slopes and woodlands. They survive from Canada, excluding Nunavut and the territories and including Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, through the United States and into Baja California and Mexico.

The Holmes brownstone backyard and, with its already resident Holmes beehives, perhaps tempt black-tailed bee flies only as temporary stops during feeding, mating, nesting spring-summer transits.

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), preparing for an all-night search through attorney Duke Landers' computer files for clues to the identity of Henry8, informs Alfredo Llamosa (Ato Essandoh), standing behind in blue t-shirt and grayish vest, that he plans to miss his one year anniversary chip presentation the next day in CBS Elementary's Dead Man's Switch (season 1 episode 20): Elementary @CBSElementary, via Facebook April 24, 2013

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

greater bee fly (Bombylius major), also known as black-tailed beefly; G. Richard Thompson Wildlife Management Area, ridge top western portion, Linden, Northern Virginia; Jan. 1, 2000: Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/6948692144/

Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller), preparing for an all-night search through attorney Duke Landers' computer files for clues to the identity of Henry8, informs Alfredo Llamosa (Ato Essandoh), standing behind in blue t-shirt and grayish vest, that he plans to miss his one year anniversary chip presentation the next day in CBS Elementary's Dead Man's Switch (season 1 episode 20): Elementary @CBSElementary, via Facebook April 24, 2013, @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/photos/a.151627898295663/241261409332311

For further information:

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