It has been a while so I figured now was as good a time as any to fire it back up. I don't know for sure who this handsome stilt-legged fly is, but I love its face and its coloring.
Here's to a happy #FlyDay to those who celebrate. I don't really know who either of these are, but the gold and black one is bristle fly and the one with the huge eyes is a hoverfly that is likely a Bromeliad Fly (Copestylum sp.)
and remote, and useful,
if only to itself. Take the fly, angel
of the ordinary house, laying its bright
eggs on the trash, pressing each jewel out
delicately along a crust of buttered toast . . . ."
from the poem by Dorianne Laux (pictured in its entirety below).
A portrait of a Gnat Ogre with lunch. This tiny robber fly was enjoying its midge lunch until I decided to shove my camera in it is face. Then it just like a puppy with a toy, it seemed to be showing off its prize.
Happy #FlyDay
I haven't posted for a while again. Life is crazy. So here's a fly I know nothing about. My guess is it's a hoverfly in the genus Quichuana (rat tailed maggot fly) but don't really know. I wonder if it is mimicking a Ceoloxys bee. It even has the hairy eyes.
@plants@nature#FlowersOnFriday#InsectFriday#FlyDay
This week saw days of 10-25C, nights 0 to 10C, some rainy days. The coming week is forecast for low 20sC, nights 2-7C- sounds like typical fall weather! Sunny days should be good for farmers with crops to harvest.
This week is #autumn#blues (okay, you know I grew up calling these purple, now I might say lavender or violet!) but we're still in the #pink too! #bloomscrolling#florespondence
How cool. I never managed to identify these maggots from a microbial mat in Yellowstone National Park. By comparing with the larvae of alkaline flies in the video, I see they also have spiky prolegs–perhaps members of the same family, since most dipterans don't have them at all.
Digging a bit, I have this other adjacent observation of adult flies walking on those waters https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/28847765 labeled as Ephydridae ... they are likely related if not the same species.
I never wanna boost many bugs other than bees or butterflies here because I know some people have big phobias of that stuff (spiders especially- my wife is SUPER insect/spider phobic and I have learned to respect that, but she understands my affinity for them 😂 ).
But just know that I'm like, bug/creature obsessed. And I'm totally jazzed that #FlyDay is a hashtag that people use on Fridays, apparently.
Friday Flyday! Here's a male Nemotelus soldier fly from Texas who's got his eyes on you. And everything else. Pretty much a complete surveillance unit.
Larvae of the chokecherry gall midge (Contarinia virginianiae) turn chokecherries into tasty and nutritious homes, enlarging them in the process. Open them up and voila! Orange fly babies! #FlyDay#Diptera#Cecidomyiidae#insect#gall#galls#flies
#Bugs#dragons and #vegetable#flowers for #SixOnSaturday @plants@nature
Top left and right- a couple of #heritage peas- I grow a number of mange-tout /snow peas/sugar peas and soup varieties- several start out as the first and mature to the second. Most of the flowers look like these-- some combination of pink or burgundy with white/lighter. I'd grow these just for the look of the plants-- I have some with deep violet pods also. #Gardening#insects#FlyDay#Alberta#Canada