100 More Species: #4 Bee-mimic hover fly

Bee-mimic hover fly Helophilus fasciatus

I've seen many more hover flies in the suburbs than in the city (though I did get a picture of one in the British city of Exeter) and I'm not entirely sure why that is. The adults require open habitat with a variety of flowering plants, and the young develop in wet places--the Genus name "helophilus" means marsh-lover. Neither criterion is too terribly rare in the city, though regular mowing probably creates a significant impact. Perhaps I just wasn't very observant in the past.

This species is much smaller than the yellow jacket hover fly that was in last year's 100 species list, but obviously bears the similar warning coloration. Hover flies (also called flower flies) are harmless and beneficial insects. They are some of the most colorful true flies, and display some really interesting territorial behavior.

Unidentified ant on Peony

I sent this photo to bugguide.net to hopefully identify the species of ant but I haven't heard anything yet. This is the time of the year that the ants hang around on the developing peony buds, feeding on nectar that forms on the outside. Folk biology claims that ants are needed for the proper development of the flower, but this is not true. It's fairly likely (but hard to prove or disprove) that the ant and the plant are not even from the same continent, and that the observed relationship is a relatively new opportunism.