flies
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11th Month Insecta
There are still a few insects in the cold. On Friday, this wasp, bumble bee, and fly were active. There were other flies about, and other impossible-to-photograph diptera, and a lovely leaf-hopper or two. Some kind of gall on a crab apple. Exit hole visible. Remember last January when I found a large cocoon that…
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Late Insecta
Not a single bee, wasp, or butterfly spotted yesterday in Green-Wood during lunch. There was a suggestion or two of fly, and at least one spider. The first real day of winter, then, bug-wise. Last weekend, though, these stragglers were spotted: Differential Grasshopper, a big one. One of the confusing Syrphid flies. Clouded Sulphur. Vinegar…
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Robber Flies & Dragonflies
A Holcocephala genus gnat ogre. Hey, I don’t make these names up, I just report them. Like the examples below, these are robber flies. Ommatius genus. Robber flies hunt and kill “insects of many orders” according to bugguide.net. In this case, a fly victim.Genus Efferia. Another captive fly.Here, the prey looks like a tiny wasp.…
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Flower Fiends
Bumble/Tiger Swallowtail.A true bug, meaning an insect that sucks its food, and an unknown bee. Another bee I can’t identify.Don’t forget the butterflies, fools for flowers, too. One of the sulphurs, I’ve never been able to distinguish them.Whoa, Nelly! Look at the patterning on this Oblique Streaktail (Allograpta obliqua)! Going to work on getting a…
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These Eyes
From a distance, I thought this was a wasp. Look at that patterning!But then, those eyes…This is a wasp-mimicking fly of the Spilomyia genus, perhaps S. longicornis.Now here’s a bee, one of the Agapostemon sweat bees. Note how the eyes are on the side of the animal. Flies have front-facing eyes that often meet near…
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Busy as…
“Moral anger against oppression needed to be matched by an understanding of how economic systems create and sustain that oppression” Two interesting historical takes at Little Sis (vs. Big Brother) on the importance of connecting the dots. On the military-industrial system, which of course never went away. And at SNCC, on the front line of…
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Flies
They get no respect, the two-winged insects known as flies. The biters, bloodsuckers, shit-eaters, in-flesh laying parasites, maggot-spawners. Ooooog, you say, why are you doing this to me on a Sunday morning? Well, at least they’re not Republicans. There are an estimated 17 million flies for each and every human. We’d be drowning in excrement…
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Memento Mori
Found in the shadowy gully between window and screen of someone else’s fourteenth story apartment, a veritable mausoleum of desiccated Diptera and at least one Hymenoptera. I’m just finishing up my costume for tonight: I’m going as a landfill full of Halloween garbage.
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Long-legged Fly
One of the genus Condylostylus long-legged flies. A little jewel. Same specimen: the light does wonderful things with the metallic sheen. There are more than 30 species in this genus north of Mexico; they usually feed on smaller insects and mites.
Backyard and Beyond 