While most gardeners despise a pest that takes advantage of a prize plant, I relish it. In fact, I plant natives to provide homes for things like this leaf miner fly in the family Agromyzidae. Thank you to John Carr for helping place this to family. Isn't is fascinating? This tiny fly is resting on the tip of a leaf blade of Mondarda fistulosa, wild bergamont. I've never observed it before, but it is tiny, no more than a few millimeters from head to folded wingtip.
-Tom
It will be interesting to see if leaf mines develop on the bergamot. I just reared some agromyzids from leaf mines on Monarda didyma, but they were Calycomyza menthae. Your fly looks like a Liriomyza, which is not a genus that has been associated with Monarda.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bugtracks- I really appreciate the feedback. Bug guide was only able to get me to family- Thanks for the lead on Liriomyza. I have other native plants in the same bed as the monarda, so I assume the fly could have just been visiting. Is there anything in particularly I should be looking for? I've never studied this group of flies before.
DeleteYour macros continue to impress! When I use my 105 to get these, they always look half out of focus. I know, it's me not the camera. I tried to ID your plant bug, no success, that's a huge family. Your yellow inchworm looks like it's on fleabane? I have a guide to all of the inchworms, and it's not in there. Something that small will probably change it's color pattern by the last instar.
ReplyDeleteHi Dennis- Yes, that tiny little larva was on Fleabane. Thanks for looking for me- do you think it's a moth larva? I'm definitely not anything close to an entomologist (heck, I never had a course on insects), I just like to take pictures of the things that are utilizing my native plants.
DeleteAs far as the photo stuff goes, I'm using flash for these photographs and stopping down my Sigma 180 lens to at least f16 to ensure adequate depth of field. Also, I'm using a 1.4 teleconverter, which gives me more magnification and working distance. Also, I'm using 100% flash for these images- at those small aperatures, there just isn't enough ambient light to get a shutter speed close enough to what I need.
As
Tom, yes, all inchworms will develop into some species of moth. It's a very large family, and as I've mentioned, color patterns vary even in the same species of caterpillars. Someday we'll have to talk photography, I'm still a point and shooter. There will be a lot of photographers at Mothapalooza this weekend, so I'll be paying attention.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dennis for your expertise. I hope you are enjoying Mothapalooza! :)
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that this leaf miner fly is Liriomyza blechi. Thank you to Owen Lonsdale for the I.D. via www.bugguide.net