Sunday, July 6, 2014

Pollinators and predators

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fritillary on butterfly weed
The butterflies are out now that the rains have passed.  

on the phlox
The vetch that is swallowing up the back garden is abuzz with bumble bees.  
The boys refuse to pull it.    

A pretty hairstreak suns on a potato leaf
Red-spotted purples and red admirals are fluttering through.  
The brown-eyed susans are full of little bees, flies and wasps.

Is this tiny fly fooling anyone with his hymenopteran disguise?
There are thousands of flies in North America -
hundreds of species of green long-legged flies, little metallic predators.  

A bronze colored long-legged fly

Members of two distinct species are patrolling adjacent milkweed plants.


A long-legged fly munching on a midge
For a hundred million years 
(according to the amber)
they have been plying their hunting grounds.
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