100 More Species #9: Snowberry clearwing

Snowberry clearwing Hemaris diffinis

I discovered this soggy and bedraggled hummingbird moth in the plants around our main rock balance. Usually encounters with these insects are brief and exhilarating--you hear a buzzing, not quite a bee not quite a bird, moving rapidly from flower to flower. This individual was stunned by cold and had damaged wings. Other related species glimpsed quickly give the impression of a small hummingbird; the snowberry clearwing is obviously a bumblebee mimic. The moth is named for one of the caterpillar's host plants.

3:00 snapshot #985

Alexis stands in the small front yard, wielding the hori-hori at me. Strange angle, makes it look like she has dwarfism.


Punctuation controversy! I think this butterfly resting on the house is a question mark, Alexis thinks it's a comma.

100 More Species #10 Narcissus fly

Narcissus fly Merodon equestris

Hey look, yet another bumblebee mimic! My attention was drawn to this fly by the sheer noise of it. Its buzzing flight was as loud as a carpenter bee, with a sinister edge to the sound. I noticed it was a fly, and not one that was familiar to me. Fortunately it rested often, and occasionally stopped on the above dandelion blossom to feed, so I was able to get a close look. It also got involved in noisy skirmishes with other flies of its own species and others.

I sent a picture to bugguide.net and the fly is tentatively identified as a narcissus bulb fly. I'm shortening it by one word even as I raise a skeptical eye at the identification. Narcissus flies are thought to have been introduced to North America from Europe through the commerce and transportation of bulbs of their larva's host plant. The adult is supposed to feed on the nectar of Narcissus plants (what normal people call daffodils) which have bloomed and gone a month ago already. Seems like bad timing for this fly to be active. Apparently they are also supposed to feed on plants in the genus Lilium (tiger lilies and such) as well, and those are yet to bloom. I haven't read anything about these flies feeding on dandelion, but I sure did observe it happening.

Assuming that this is the right fly.

Magic

I bet asakiyume could write a really nice story about this picture. This is a very small coprinoid mushroom. I was lucky to catch it, because it had vanished only hours after this photo was taken.