Is there a moth that looks like a giant bee?

Question

I saw this in Northern Canada. It looks like a huge, hairy, striped bee but way bigger then any bee I've ever seen. It does not buzz. It flies kind of slowly and low to the ground, but the wings move very fast so that it's hard to see them properly. They seem quite small compared to normal moth wings, but I hope it's not a bee because that would be freaky!

Answer 1

There is a butterfly that looks much like a large bee. I don't know what its name is, but one visits my flowers. Send me your email address and I will send you a picture of it.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 2

There are actually several species of moth and butterfly that mimic bees. These are known as clearwing moths or butterflies. There are many different species of clearwings and not all of them look like bees. Some simply look like butterflies or moths that happen to have clear wings, but there are many that look like bees or wasps. If you do a google image search for clearwing moth, you'll come up with a lot of different pictures of moths that look like bees. I actually saw an entire collection solely of moths that mimic bees and wasps during a field trip with my entomology class, you'd be surprised at how many there are.