honey fly n [See quots 1915, 1997] chiefly NY Cf buckwheat fly n
= cluster fly n 1.
1913 NY State College Ag. Cornell Univ. Cornell Reading-Course Home 49.9, The Cluster Fly (Pollenia rudis)—A word should be said about the cluster, or bunch, or honey, fly, as it is variously called. . . It is familiar to most housekeepers because of its habit of entering houses in autumn and hiding away in protected nooks and corners in large clusters. 1915 Orange Judd Farmer 59.14.27/3 PA, [Letter:] I would like to know of a way to be rid of the horrid honey flies. I call them this because they smell like honey. They come toward fall in swarms in our bedrooms. 1916 Rural New-Yorker 75.1364, [Letter:] Can you tell me how to rid a house of “bunch” or “honey” flies? . . How do they get into new, apparently tight windows? 1952 Post–Std. (Syracuse NY) 7 Apr 4/4, [Letter:] Does anyone know a sure-fire way to rid one’s home of the troublesome buckwheat, cluster or honey fly? 1972 Oneonta Star (NY) 10 Oct 13/7, The regular houseflies have been pretty well checked. Our fly of the unused rooms where the sun can penetrate is called a buckwheat fly or a honey fly. 1997 Chron.–Telegram (Elyria OH) 31 July sec C 2/2 cwNY, Cluster flies, also called ‘Buckwheat’ or honey flies, give off a buckwheat honey smell when crushed.