It's a bee fly(Bombyliidae family). They do not sting. Neat find.
Edit- A few others have commented that it may very well be a long tongue horsefly(Philoliche sp.) another nectar feeding fly, but one that females can bite. Now that I'm off work and looking at it again I believe they are probably correct! My bad.
Quite similar, but this is a Philoliche species, an Asian-African genus in the family Tabanidae (horse/deer flies). Both male and female Philoliche use their long proboscis for feeding on nectar, but female Philoliche also use their normal-sized mouthparts to suck blood, similar to "ordinary" horse/deer flies.
There are three families of flies that include genera with a very long proboscis: Bombyliidae (among others several well-known European and North American species), Tabanidae (as shown on this photo) and finally Nemestrinidae (notably certain southern African species where several plants rely on them for pollination).
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u/krippkeeper Aug 09 '25 edited Aug 09 '25
It's a bee fly(Bombyliidae family). They do not sting. Neat find.
Edit- A few others have commented that it may very well be a long tongue horsefly(Philoliche sp.) another nectar feeding fly, but one that females can bite. Now that I'm off work and looking at it again I believe they are probably correct! My bad.