I spent a fair amount of time last Summer watching the insects on our garden flowers. Some of my favorite insects were the Green Soldier Flies (Hedriodiscus sp). These flies were active for much of...

Southwestern Raven II - colored pencils May the Coming Year treat You and Yours With gentle Kindness. Remember that Raven Claus giveth, But Raven Claws taketh away. I cannot believe that the y...

Hunt’s Bumblebee (_Bombus huntii_) approaching a Caragana flower. One of the big Springtime events here in Southwestern Colorado is seeing the Hunt’s Bumblebee queens coming in to the Caragana. T...

Carrot Wasp (Gasteruption sp.) on parsley flower. I live in Southwestern Colorado, at about 6200’ of elevation. This last Summer (2024), I spent a lot of time watching the insects in our garden, e...

The Spider Wasp retrieving her paralyzed victim’s body. A few days ago (November 11, 2024), I was sitting in the backyard, watching birds and reading. I noticed a black wasp moving over the ground...

Profile of a Stictomyia longicornis fly on a just-forming Prickly Pear flower in Tucson, Arizona. Look at the way that its wings bend to follow the curve of its abdomen! Back when I lived in Tucso...

Dodder growing on Cocklebur. Sometimes it looks as though the Dodder wraps around itself as much as it does the host plant. There’s something eerily festive about Dodder’ exuberant growth - reminds...

Those cottony-looking balls on the saltbush are formed by _Asphondylia neomexicana_ - a type of Gall Midge. As I was driving along a dirt road in Southwestern Colorado’s plateau country in August ...