In Praise of Packing a Punch

Walking home from the Fourth of July parade, I strolled through my neighbor's yard to see who might be dining on her flowers.

A tiny fly with a wasp-like shape hovered around and on the same three lavender blossoms at the back steps. I hovered too, sweating and snapping.

A hover fly, I thought. But what to make of that strange shape? Larva? Nymph? Not understanding the fly life cycle, I tried both search terms, and bingo! I found my target: a kind of flower fly or hover fly. I entered the search term in Bugguide.net and immediately found my answer: an Aphid Fly, Pseudodoros clavatus.

At the Mutt Show earlier, one friend said, "Robley has a new camera!" And later another said, "Where did you get that camera?" When I told her about Betsy (who died a year ago on June 31) and her gift, she said, "And every time you take a picture, you think of her, don't you?"

Yes, I do.


Like this tiny fly, she packed quite a punch.