Bug FAQBee-eating Beetle (Trichodes alvearius)
Trichodes alvearius · Order: Coleoptera · Family: Cleridae
The bee-eating beetle is a very hairy insect with a black head, black scutellum and bright red wing covers marked with black bands. Adults appear from May to August on flowers of Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Crataegus, where they eat pollen and hunt small insects, while the larvae develop as parasites of bees and wasps.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
It is covered in dense hairs, has a black head and scutellum, and its elongated elytra are bright red with black bands.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Adults are found from May through August visiting flowers, especially those of Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Crataegus.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adults feed on pollen from the flowers they visit. They also hunt and eat small insects such as Oedemera, Psilothrix, Stenopterus and Clytus species.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Larvae are parasites of bees and wasps; females lay eggs near hymenopteran nests, and the hatched larvae consume various stages of their hosts.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults are active from May to August.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
It is native to southern Europe, including countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Poland and the Balkans, and also occurs in North Africa. The species disappeared from England in the nineteenth century.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It can be told apart from the similar Trichodes apiarius by a black stripe running down the middle of the back and a red tip that the black stain does not reach.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Questions people ask
When can I see bee-eating beetles?
Adults are on the wing from May through August, usually on flowers of Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Crataegus.
Source: Wikipedia
What do adult bee-eating beetles eat?
They feed on flower pollen and also hunt small insects such as Oedemera and Clytus species.
Source: Wikipedia
How do the larvae develop?
Females lay eggs near bee or wasp nests; the larvae then parasitise those hymenopteran hosts.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Cleridae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichodes_alvearius
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.