This is the third post documenting and roughly grouping nearly 50 species of insects and spiders that have been visiting a cluster of seven boneset plants in my backyard.No other wildflower in my backyard, with the possible exception of the meadow rue that bloomed earlier in the season, has attracted anywhere near the variety and sheer numbers of species that this unassuming boneset has.
Again, the grouping of all these insects together is based on a guess as to what constitutes a fly. If all of these nine photos are of different species, then the species count rises to 29.
Update, August 30, 2009: Thanks to Keith Bayless, who provided latin names for many of these insects (see comment section)
First photo: Tachinidae: Trichopoda pennipes?
(Tachina Fly)
2 Calliphoridae: Lucilia? sp.
3 Muscidae: Coenosia?
5 Tachinidae
6 Dolichopodidae: Condylostylus
7 Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini
8 Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini
9 Calliphoridae: Pollenia?
hi, i got your email from the duke natural history email list. If I put a ? next to an ID it means I am not entirely sure at that level. From the top to the bottom, i would say the insects in this post are:
ReplyDelete1 Tachinidae: Trichopoda pennipes?
2 Calliphoridae: Lucilia? sp.
3 Muscidae: Coenosia?
4 ? black blob
5 Tachinidae
6 Dolichopodidae: Condylostylus
7 Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini
8 Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Augochlorini
9 Calliphoridae: Pollenia?
Hope this is helpful. I would recommend looking into the discover life goldenrod challenge, similar to what you are doing except on goldenrod
(http://www.discoverlife.org/goldenrod/)
Thanks Keith for the identifications! I'll work through these and try to attach them to the photos.
ReplyDelete