Thursday, April 4, 2013

Lost in the Shuffle

Took this one on yesterday's walk in downtown Quincy, but forgot to include in my last post.  An impressive fly on a Dandelion on the lawn of the Plumas County School District office.  There's a row of Sweet Gum trees by the sidewalk that have major roots rising above the lawn. That makes mowing difficult, which, to me, is a good thing because it provides good habitat for interesting weeds and bugs.  I'm sure the groundskeepers have a different perspective, but I take my enjoyment where I can find it.  As Michael Pollen said, "A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule."

Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. Spencer DykstraApril 4, 2013 at 8:57 PM

    Looks like a robber fly... but flies are difficult to identify. Any ideas Joe?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joe WillisApril 5, 2013 at 10:08 AM

    I didn't capture it, but I feel relatively safe saying it was in the Family Tephritidae that includes various Robber Flies and flies that go by many other names. In this particular photo I was more concerned with aesthetics than identification. I would need to capture one and get out the hand lens in order to identify it, and even then I don't think I have sufficient insect resources. I enjoyed watching its behavior. It seemed to get fixated on a certain flower, and if I chased it away it would keep coming back even though there were plenty of others in the vicinity.

    ReplyDelete
  3. jonApril 10, 2013 at 10:06 PM

    I grew up the suburbs of Chicago and I never quite understood the lawn fetish. Sure you'd want it bright green and pillow-soft if you slept on it, but you don't, hopefully.

    I suppose, though, picking a battle with nature with no danger to the man, victory assured with poisons, might have been very appealing to my neighbors.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)