I enjoy taking photos of the little things in my yard. I always have to remind myself to sometimes take pictures of the bigger picture, too, because I'm inclined to "think small."
It's so fascinating to look at the world from a smaller perspective. This photo shows one of my favorite plants--spiderwort (Tradescantia). This shows the size of the flowers and the plant.
Spiderwort is a good nectar plant and draws lots of bees, especially bumblebees. I really enjoy bumblebees, but I also noticed some little bees getting nectar, too. I think they're flower flies of some kind. You can see from the second photo that in comparison to the flower, this is quite a small bee.
The third photo shows this little bee closer up. It's quite intriguing, but it would be easy to miss it in the larger landscape. It's a little gem of an insect and rivals many larger creatures in beauty. And yet how many people ever really see it?Someone could probably traverse my smallish urban/suburban yard in a few minutes and think they had seen it all, but there are billions of little things to see when I "think small."
A digital camera is a very useful aid in exploring this world. It allows me to see things closer up when I'm looking at the digital image back at the computer than I could ever see in real life.
Computers and digital cameras are two things whose loss I would mourn. I know that the world (especially those of us living in the developed world) will have to create a more sustainable lifestyle. The challenge will be to keep those things (for me the digital camera and computer/internet) that truly enhance our lives and shed all the other stuff that are merely conveniences or trinkets.
2 comments:
That is actually a type of fly belonging to the Syrhpidiae, which have black and yellow stripes to mimic bees. They are commonly called syrphid flies, hover flies (because of how they hover in the air and hold their wings straight out at rest), or sweat bees. The adults also need pollen and nectar and so are found on similar flowers as bees and wasps, though they are flies (look at those big eyes!). Their larvae are aphid predators and are considered beneficial insects in vegetable gardens!
Hi Sue,
I had forgotten this post! In the meantime, I've discovered bugguide.net - a wonderful resource for identifying insects, so now I know it's Toxomerus marginatus. I didn't know that their larvae were aphid predators, though, so now I'll welcome them even more!
Thanks for posting!
By the way, I no longer post write new posts to this blog. Most of my info is on my website at www.ourhabitatgarden.org (to be updated this summer). I also have a free 6-session discussion course available at www.hgcny.org, our Wild Ones chapter website.
Janet
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