It's a very complicated text you're reading! A bit old-fashioned, too. Виктория explained it right, I'll just give a bit more details. С виду пчелы – это как будто все равно что мухи. "С виду" means "from sight / from (the first) sight" You may often hear a sentence like "С виду он нормальный, но на самом деле очень странный" (He looks normal, but in reality he's very strange). "как будто всё равно что" is a bunch of words that rarely come together; sounds terrible and only works in fiction; in a simple conversation one would just say "Пчёлы похожи на мух". Но куда там мухам до пчел! Literally "There's a long way for flies to reach the bees" Makes sense, but is used, again, seldom. Куда + Dat. + до + Gen. - this structure diminishes one person in comparison with another; usually is used sarcastically: "Куда мне (до него)!" (Oh, I'm not as good as him, of course) Example: - Ты этого никогда не поймёшь! - *саркастически* Конечно, куда мне! - You will never understand this! - *sarcastically* Yeah, you bet!

С виду пчелы – это как будто все равно что мухи. = Bees look exactly like flies. Но куда там мухам до пчел! = But flies are totally different from bees! * meaning that bees are much better, and flies are stupid and so on