Today’s photos are from Howard Feldman of Houston. His captions are indented and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them.
All these photos were taken with my old Iphone5 in our community garden near downtown Houston, TX, over about 1 year.
European honeybee, Apis mellifera, on an arugula flower (Erica vesicaria):
Davis’s Cuckoo Sweat Bee, Sphecodes davisii. Sphecodes bees are kleptoparasitic on other bees, stealing their food:
Bumblebee, Bombus sp.:
Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa sp. There are approximately 500 species of carpenter bees, and several visit our garden:
Monarch Butterfly, Danaus plexippus:
Gulf Fritillary Butterfly, Agraulis vanilla. This butterfly loves parks and urban gardens:
Black-Bordered Lemon Moth, Marimatha nigrofimbria. Houston is at the far southwestern edge of its range:
Nice pictures! It’s amazing what even an old iPhone 5 can do when paired with a talent for photography.
Beautiful photos!
Great shot of the Carpenter Bee. Thank you!
Beautiful. Remember, they never asked Rembrandt what kind of brushes he used.
Thanks for the compliments. You are welcome to re-use the photos, just give me credit for them.
Beautiful colourful pics. But please excuse my pedantry: I’m doubtful about the moth. The antennae are clubbed, so it looks to me like a member of the hisperiidiae, or skippers – butterflies rather than moths.
There seems to be a list of US skippers here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_butterflies_of_North_America_%28Hesperiidae%29
and I would guess it’s a grass skipper of some sort, but there aren’t pictures for all of them and I couldn’t indentify it.
I think a Fiery Skipper or very similar
See Fig. 4 here
https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/BFLY/fiery_skipper.htm
Yes, I think you are correct. I got that one wrong. I am not an expert, I am a geologist.
Also the one labeled Bumble Bee could possibly be a Carpenter Bee (okay, I cheated and used INaturalist). The males often have dazzling golden fuzz as seen in your photo. I am in awe of your photographic skills with an IPhone!!
These remind me of Summer to come. Happy to see, thanks!