Some of those hard to see little critters

 When one is out looking at flowers, especially late in the season, one cannot help but notice a lot of little creatures coming and going. Sometimes very quickly and they are hard to see let alone identify in the field. They don't pause long enough for the use of a magnifying glass! They are busily collecting nectar, all the while pollinating the flowers. A good macro lens and flash are essential, as most are less than one cm in length. Only then can they usually be identified when processed and cropped on a computer.

Tufted Globetail

Doing this is one of the fun things of late summer and early autumn exploration when numerous asters, goldenrods and other late season wildflowers are in relative abundance. Some asters, such as this first one, the Arrow-leaved Aster, is fairly common, but rather with a plain colour.

New England Aster, next, is usually quite abundant, and one of the most colourful of the aster group.

Here are a few of the creatures I've managed to capture with my camera equipment. I have provided a name for all, and many have been confirmed on iNaturalist, but some are still awaiting a second identification to confirm.

Bicolored Sweat Bee

Black-shouldered Drone Fly

Blue-green Bottle Fly

Bramble Mason Wasp

Brown-winged Striped Sweat Bee

A type of Cluster Fly, species not yet determined

Common Drone Fly

Common Eastern Bumble Bee

Common European Green-bottle Fly

Dark-winged Sweat Bee

Eastern Calligrapher

Eastern Forest Sedgesitter

Sometimes even a single flower can get quite busy!

Golden Sweat Bee

Hornworm Tachinid Fly

Sometimes the names given are longer than the individual, certainly as in this next one.

Long-tailed Aphideater

Margined Calligrapher

Narrow-headed Marsh Fly

North American Tarnished Plant Bug

North American Paper Wasp

Pure Green Sweat Bee

Silky-striped Sweat Bee

Spotted Cucumber Beetle

This next one, a type of Tachinid Fly, looks quite bristly.

Another type of Tachinid Fly

Transverse-banded Flower Fly

Last, but not least, is the same one this post started with: a Tufted Globetail, a species that was fairly common so I got lots of photos.

The shapes, sizes and diversity of these creatures is amazing, and so much fun to try and capture digitally. The season for this is virtually over for this year, but I will be on the lookout for any late season hangers-on.

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