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Saturday, February 11, 2017

Solar-powered

Air temperatures in Bodega Bay reached ~56°F (~13°C) this afternoon.  After a week of rain, it seemed like a lot of insects were taking advantage of the sun today:


Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)



Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)



Variegated Meadowhawk (Sympetrum corruptum)




Unidentified fly (Let me know if you recognize it!)


ADDENDUM (12 February 2017): One of the suggestions I received about the fly in this post was that it could be a hover fly.  I did a quick image search, and noticed a similar-looking hover fly here.  I don't think it's the same species (based on the abdominal patterning), but it's very close, and I think it's likely the fly in the picture above is in the same family (Syrphidae).

Then I skimmed some information about syrphid flies, and learned that sometimes they eat aphids.  In the field I had noticed that these flies were spending a lot of time around the tips of the Monterey Cypress.  I wondered about what they were doing there (i.e., what was attracting them to those sites).  Well, I went back and reviewed my photos and it looks like there might be tiny aphids on the cypress tips!  Check it outand note the arrow pointing to one of the possible aphids:


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm taking a WAG and saying hover fly--K

Jackie Sones said...

Hi! Thanks for the guess! I followed up on it -- see the Addendum now added to the bottom of this post.

:) Jackie