Insects in Late Spring - 2022
Until recently, when it's cold and rainy and I've had to turn the heat back on, it was warm and the insects were out. Here are a few.
The bees.
On Gay Butterflies butterfly weed, a native leaf-cutter bee. For all my flowers I get few butterflies, but plenty of bees.
The Western honeybee (European honeybee) on bachelor button...
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and lance-leaf coreopsis.
My native yellow-faced bumblebee on (or in) cranesbill geranium.
A young and uninvited grasshopper on lance-leaf coreopsis.
An underappreciated pollinator, a fly, on a ruffly coreopsis.
The grasshopper may be uninvited, but the tarnished plant bug is downright unwanted. It's favorite thing is strawberries. Guess where this Pink Surprise calendula is growing? That's right, the strawberry bed! Add the tarnished plant bug to my list of despised bugs. Squash bugs. Shield bugs. Stink bugs. True bugs in general.
A hover fly with a fabulous name, this is the margined calligrapher. It's also known as a flowerfly. This one is on a purple salsify flower. Many consider the purple salsify a weed, but it is also cultivated for the beautiful flowers and the edible root, which is said to taste like oysters. I leave mine until they start getting covered in tiny black aphids, which happens every summer.
My knowledge of insects is limited, but I do have my own list of despised insects. We wage constant war on squash bugs. We have potato beetle problems on potatoes. I gave up a couple of plants (roses, sorrel) due to Japanese beetles. It just wasn't worth the struggle for the return. Last year we had a problem with carpenter bees. But I must always keep in mind, we wouldn't have food without insects, and neither would the birds that delight us. I enjoyed seeing your pollinators.
ReplyDeleteI once introduced a friend of mine at a party to the group that had already arrived. I shared that she was an entomologist. You wouldn't believe the sort of questions that she received. I shudder at the memory of it even today. Nice pics.
ReplyDeleteGreat insect pics.
ReplyDelete