Old and older

Photo by Karen McWhirter 3/11/2017

As has often been the case this year, I've kept photos long after they were taken. (More on that topic later this month, I hope.) Thanks for your patience!

Karen writes:

I took this photo of a bee-fly on March 11th. I had seen what looked like a small bee hovering over the same patch of dirt in my backyard for several days. It occurred to me that it seemed rather odd that I rarely saw it go to any flowers. Searching online for "hovering bees" I learned that it was a Bee-Fly. This fly is in the Bombyliidae family. Though it has a long proboscis for feeding on nectar, they do not sting. The larvae parasitize ground-nesting insects.

Here's another from Ned