Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Chrysanthrax

Chrysanthrax crocinus - male Chrysanthrax cypris? - Chrysanthrax cypris Badlands bee fly - Chrysanthrax Bee Fly - Chrysanthrax cypris Chrysanthrax cypris Chrysanthrax dispar? - Chrysanthrax Fly? - Chrysanthrax cypris Bee Fly of some sort? - Chrysanthrax cypris
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Diptera (Flies)
No Taxon (Orthorrhapha)
Superfamily Asiloidea
Family Bombyliidae (Bee Flies)
Subfamily Anthracinae
Tribe Villini
Genus Chrysanthrax
Explanation of Names
Chrysanthrax Osten Sacken 1886
Numbers
30 spp. in our area, 55 total(1)
Range
New World, US to Argentina & Chile; in our area, all but 3 spp. are western, esp. diverse in CA & sw. US; C. cypris & C. dispar are widespread in e. US, C. edititius ranges east to MI-OH-TX(1)
Food
Reported as an external parasitoid of cocoons of Tiphiidae and Anthophoridae (Yeates 1997)
See Also
Hemipenthes has similar wing pattern that is less straight, more sinuate, plus dark hair on body. Poecilanthrax has no scales on the face.