Posts Tagged: blow fly

Pollinator!

When you see the blow fly (below), what do you think?Well, that depends on who you are and what you do--or maybe your earliest negative/positive insect recollections. If you hate flies, particularly blow flies, and you despise their larvae (maggots), your response is probably "Yecch!" If you're an...

Blow fly on a New Zealand tea tree (Leptospermum scoparium). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Blow fly on a New Zealand tea tree (Leptospermum scoparium). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Blow fly gathering nectar from New Zealand tea tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Blow fly gathering nectar from New Zealand tea tree. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Eyes Have It

The eyes have it.Look at the compound eyes of an insect. Some are colorful, some are drab. But they are all organs that detect light. Most insects "have some sight and many possess highly developed visual systems," write UC Davis entomology professors Penny Gullan and Pete Cranston in the fourth...

Blow Fly

EYES of the blow fly glowing red in the sunlight. This fly is perched on yarrow. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Honey Bee

EYES of a honey bee are rimmed with hair. This worker bee is nectaring lavender (and keeping a close eye out on the photographer). (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Yellow-Faced Bumble Bee

EYES of yellow-faced bumble bee scan the horizon. This is a Bombus vosnesenskii atop catmint. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Metallic Green Sweat Bee

EYES of a metallic green sweat bee are rimmed in fluorescent green. This is a male sweat bee, Agapostemon texanus (as identified by native pollinator specialist Robbin Thorp of UC Davis). It is on a seaside daisy at Tomales Bay. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Leafcutter Bee

EYES of a leafcutter bee peer over rock purslane. This is a male Megachile sp. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Fly Away

God in His wisdom made the fly And then forgot to tell us why. --Ogden Nash, "The Fly"   Every time I see a fly I think of the Ogden Nash poem.   Our bee-friendly garden is attracting a few flies. I captured this one visiting sage and then preserved it for...

The Fly

THE FLY--A fly on sage, posterized through Photoshop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Read more