Made me smile 🫧Dec 31
The Japanese Bee Fly mimics a bee, is super cute and was the inspiration for the Pokemon Cutiefly
Show threadSoh Kam YungFeb 22

@MadeMeSmile Sorry, but I cannot find any reference to a Japanese Bee Fly on Wikipedia.

Do you have a link to a naturalist or scientific website that describes the species?

@troublewithwords

Show threadscyFeb 22
@sohkamyung @MadeMeSmile @troublewithwords I've found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombylius_major, which is called "bee fly" and lives in Asia, but looks somewhat different to what's pictured above.
Bombylius major - Wikipedia

Show threadscyFeb 22

@sohkamyung Oh look, this post is 4 years old, maybe it's not AI after all:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Awwducational/comments/s03037/bee_flies_these_insects_often_lay_their_eggs/?show=original

Show threadSoh Kam Yung

@scy Ah. That Reddit post references this article in the Journal of Geek Studies [ https://jgeekstudies.org/2018/10/12/entomological-diversity-of-pokemon/ ], which features a photo of this particular bee fly, Anastoechus nitidulus.

So, I also consider it to be legitimate. 🙂

@MadeMeSmile

The entomological diversity of Pokémon

Rebecca N. Kittel Museum Wiesbaden, Hessisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Natur, Wiesbaden, Germany. Email: rebecca.n.kittel (at) gmail (dot) com. Download PDF Pocket Monsters or as they are better…

Journal of Geek Studies
Feb 22 at 2:07pmWeb
Show threadEric Stein �Feb 22
@sohkamyung @scy @MadeMeSmile
OMG it's so cute https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/471123-Anastoechus-nitidulus/browse_photos
Photos of Anastoechus nitidulus · iNaturalist

iNaturalist