A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Sarcophagae
Two flies, one smaller than the other. Both had red eyes. Spotted Cucumber beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata for size comparison.
The bloom is of a silver and gold groundcover, Ajania pacifica. It has bright golden-yellow button-like flowers that adorn the plant in late fall.
There were several smaller all black flies, but did not have my macro lens and could not get a good photo.
Spotted on Nov 30, 2012
Submitted on Dec 5, 2012
2 Comments
Ajania pacifica USDA Hardiness Zone 5a: to -28.8 °C (-20 °F). Other common names are Pacific Chrysanthemum, Gold-and-Silver Chrysanthemum, Silver and Gold Chrysanthemum. It requires full sun, even our Texas sun. It grows about 18 inches tall. Cut it back like you do mums after they bloom. Yes it does attract the bugs and its late fall bloom is a real season extender.
What a collection of insects! It looks like the two flies are of different species. You can see the eye arrangement is different (aside from the size difference) and the color patterning is slightly different.
I wonder if that plant would grow up here in NY. It looks like a great insect attractor.