Our friends, the pollinators!

 With the ongoing heat and humidity, it is nice to have an excuse to sometimes stay close to home. And fortunately there are lots of things to see and photograph within a few metres of the back door. Insects of various kinds are incredibly important for a lot of reasons. Due to their small size, it is easy to overlook them. So here are a few that I have photographed in the yard. Such amazing diversity and design! 

If you want to see these little creatures which are already being displayed here larger than life size, but several times larger than life size, just click on the photo.

Banded Longhorn Beetle

Beebalm Shortface

Bicolored Striped Sweat Bee

Bordered Wedge-shaped Beetle

Common Eastern Bumblebee

 

Bumblebee types can be quite confusing. This next one is quite similar-looking to the previous one, but is known as an Eastern Carpenter Bee. The subtle differences can be noticed by those who specialize in the nuances of them. Thank goodness for iNaturalist, where those with much more expertise than I will identify them for me and without which I would be lost!

Ligated Furrow-bee

Large Milkweed Bug

Great Golden Digger Wasp

Very similar in behaviour is the Great Black Digger Wasp, shown next. Although I am very close to them with my macro lens and flash, I have never been bothered by such creatures. I move slowly and carefully, and of course they are more interested in either the pollen of the flowers or the smaller creatures they can find on the flowers.

False Milkweed Bug

Something that looks a little formidable, as its name implies, and is not native but periodically found, is the European Earwig. The earwig name comes from the shape of the hind pincers that in a full adult, are the shape of an ear. Sort of....

 Milkweeds can be dangerous for some creatures. The flowers can trap the leg of smaller creatures. This next one shows what is likely a honey bee, which technically is not native to the area. It doesn't have the strength to get its foot uncaught, so after a period of struggle and being unsuccessful, will eventually die.

Next is a member of the Longhorn Bees group, and doesn't have a common name as it is only identified to the genus, known as Melissodes.

Marsh Greenbottle Fly

The next one is the Margined Leatherwing Beetle, and can vary in appearance as the following two photos show.

Not sure who comes up with names, but this next one is the Lunate Longhorn-cuckoo Bee.

Western Honey Bee

Transverse Banded Flower Fly

A type of Sweat Bee

Next is the larval stage of the Swamp Milkweed Beetle....

...followed by the adult Swamp Milkweed Beetle.

Not something that squash growers like to see around, but the next one is a Squash Vine Borer.

Seven-spotted Lady Beetle

Red Milkweed Beetle

This final one for this post is a member of the Thick-headed fly group, known only by its Latin name, and is called Physocephala tibialis. 

That's it for this post, but there is more to come!

 

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