A Swath of Mountain Mint

Amidst the general chaos and despair of Bush Terminal Park, ecologically speaking, this strip of Pycnanthemum has been bringing all the pollinators to the yard. I think it’s Narrowleaf Mountainmint/P. tenuifolium, one of a several species of this pollinator-magnet, and this is its first year.

Various bee and butterfly species were feasting on these tiny flowers, but for the next couple of days I will concentrate on the wasps.

Let’s start with these Two-horned Beetle Wasps/Cerceris bicornuta. This was the first time I’d seen a female (top), a specialist weevil hunter. This species has highly variable coloration/patterns, and the three or four females I saw all had different patterning. The males also had some variation. As we will see in a future post…