Adieu to camphorweed

A Syrphid fly on camphorweed; click for more detail.

As we bid goodbye for now to camphorweed, Heterotheca subaxillaris, I’m reminded that it’s not just spiders and I who visit this species. In 2009 the Syrphid fly shown here hovered about and finally landed as I was photographing some camphorweed on the the Blackland Prairie in northeast Austin. I’m also reminded that before Europeans brought honeybees to the Americas, the flowers that had evolved here somehow managed to get themselves pollinated with never a word of English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese being spoken.

Update on August 23, 2011: Valerie Bugh has confirmed that the Syrphid fly is Toxomerus marginatus.

© 2011 Steven Schwartzman