Here's a close up of one even though the picture is rather blurry. It was crawling around on the sidewalk drinking up rain water.

Maybe a orchid bee hard to tell from photo.

DENNIS

What a pretty little insect! It's amazing what you see when you look closely enough.

I hope I'm wrong, but it almost looks like it could be some type of fruit fly. In which case they are bad dudes. Www.whatsthatbug.com may be able to identify it for you since your pictures are quite clear.

Looks like more than 1 kind of insect nectaring on those fennel blooms, I think I spy a teeny paper wasp on the far left &...hover/syrphid flies? I know they like to lay their eggs on my fennel & dill - the larvae feed on the aphids that tend to cover the flower heads

Here is a link that might be useful: Featured Creatures

Thanks for the links. I'll try both sites to see if they can id this bug. Hopefully it does turn out to be harmless.

Kara

That's a bee fly (family Bombyliidae), looks like Chrysanthrax cypris. A harmless/beneficial pollinator.

Thank you, saccharum! I looked up the bee fly on the net and that's exactly what it is!

Kara