As well as the bee-fly there is another insect with a very long tongue noisily hovering round the lungwort flowers. This one, the hairy-footed flower bee (Anthophora plumipes) has a different appearance. The females are black but the males are coloured more like a honey bee but not so spherical as the bee-flies. Males seem to have a whitish kind of face and you can see in the photo on the right why this bee is called 'hairy-footed'. Also the long tongue of Anthophora is a bit more curved than the needle-like proboscis of the bee-fly.
I tried to follow a female with a video but she was too speedy so I'll have to include a link to youtube.
A female is trying to feed but several sex-crazed males are eager to mate with her. One eventually makes it and seems to be waving to his rivals. But actually what he is doing is wafting pheromone perfumes towards the female to keep her engaged. Brilliant piece of filming by jwentomologist.
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