Mallophora bomboides, also known as the Florida bee killer, is a predaceous species of robber fly of the family Asilidae that feeds primarily on bumblebees.

[7] These bees are typically found in the Eastern and Southern regions of the United States like South Carolina and Florida.

[8] Adults typically live in open habitats often in the vicinity of apiaries, perching on stalks of weeds or tips of shrubs from which they launch their attacks.

[10] In fact, in these ancient times, the confusion between the two insects led to the disproven notion that bees undergo spontaneous generation from decaying carcasses.

[7] Consistent with other members of the family Asilidae, larvae are thought to be predaceous, feeding on soft-bodied insects in the soil.

[7] In terms of aggressive mimicry, the female flies of M. bomboides may enter into bumblebee nests to lay eggs.

[7] Experiments conducted by Brower et al. demonstrate that M. bomboides is a Batesian mimic of its bumblebee model and prey, B. americanorum (now more commonly known as Bombus pensylvanicus), which is noxious to predators such as the toad Bufo terretris due to its sting.

For mimetic asilids like M. bomboides, these organisms attack their aculeate Hymenoptera models and will seek habitats abundant in their prey, thereby ensuring sympatry.

All these conditions hold for the M. bomboides with their models, B. americanorum in a 1960 conducted by Brower et al. in south central Florida.

[7] The toad B. terrestris was used as caged predators to demonstrate that, despite their night foraging and lack of color vision, they can learn to reject bumblebees on sight alone and confuse mimetic flies with their apian hosts as well.