Bombylius major, the large bee-fly or dark-edged bee-fly, is a fuzzy, bumblebee-mimicking fly (Diptera: Bombyliidae) in the 6.3–12 mm size range, with a long rigid proboscis and distinctive dark leading-edge wing patches. Adults are active in spring (April–June, occasionally from late March), hovering at low flowers to take nectar and incidentally transferring pollen; Pulmonaria officinalis is cited as being almost exclusively pollinated by this species. Females are parasitoids of solitary-bee nests: they flick eggs near the entrance of ground-nesting Andrena burrows, and larvae develop at the host's expense inside. The species is broadly Holarctic, occurring across temperate Europe, much of Asia, and North America, making it a familiar and ecologically significant spring-garden visitor wherever early-flowering perennials grow.

Plants this species pollinates · 1

Nectar plants · 1

Holarctic: temperate Europe (UK and Ireland east through Russia to Japan), North America from Canada south through the continental United States, and parts of Asia. Wikipedia's species article gives the range as 'temperate Europe, North America and some parts of Asia, concentrated in the northern hemisphere'; GBIF occurrence data additionally documents the species in Central and East Asia. North Africa is reported in some secondary literature but is not confirmed in the primary Wikipedia citation and should not be stated as verified without a dedicated range source.