Life among the spiderwort

[urbpan]

My feelings on spiderwort have evolved in the two years or so that I've been aware of it. First I dismissed it as a cultivated flower, then accepted it as a native (albeit a cultivar), and finally have come to meet it with a mixture of disdain and resignation. It has a pretty purple flower that attracts and benefits pollinating insects, and it blooms early in the season and early in the day, seeming to prefer lower light conditions. But it is thoroughly invasive, and since we've been paying attention to Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, black swallow-wort and celandine, the spiderwort has been spreading like wildfire.

In any case, my primary interest in a flower is to take note of what insects gather to it. Above a nymph of a short-horned grasshopper clings uncharacteristically to the blossom, rather than the succulent leaves.


Instead, a tiny bee-mimic hover fly rests on the leaf. You should be up there feeding on flower nectar! Whatever.


That's better! A pollinator actively pollinating. I'll let you know what this metallic green hymenopteran is once the experts tell me (unless you are an expert and want to tell me--that's good too). I suspect it's a solitary bee, but it might be a cuckoo wasp, or maybe something entirely different.

Comments

[mercureal.livejournal.com]

Bee! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agapostemon

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

a very pretty little bee indeed :)

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Bee, or wasp?

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

Spiderwort turns from that "blue" to pink in the presence of ionizing radiation. It's a good exposure detecting "canary" species.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Despite many reports of its aggressiveness, my spiderworts have mostly been well-behaved. Only the ones in really soggy patches have gotten large. I think the heat down here keeps them daunted....