Today we have a bit of a mystery in our sunflowers.
Most of the flowers look like this:
This flower is different:
Yes, there is still a bee collecting nectar and pollen.
But there are some clues that another insect is hiding in this flower as well as the bee.
Any ideas what kind of insect is in this sunflower besides the bee?
It’s National Pollinator Week (June 17 through June 23, 2012) and we’re celebrating insect pollinators! 
Did you know that many plants will not produce fruit unless they are properly pollinated? Roughly one third of the food in the grocery store, from apples to vanilla, would no longer be available if there were no pollinators to carry pollen from flower to flower. Fortunately, there are bats, birds, butterflies, bees (and more) to get the job done.
The National Pollinator Week website has plenty of resources to help you participate and to learn more, including:
and Information for Educators.
If you follow the educators link, you will see the Bee Smart School Garden Kit ( I believe this is available a $150 donation). Scroll down to Additional Useful Resources to find a free 127 page curriculum Nature’s Partner’s to download (.pdf) and other helpful resources.
When we think of pollinators, of course the honey bee springs to mind. If you click on the bees category here at Growing with Science, you will find photographs and information about a variety of different bees that also are important pollinators.
Related science activities:
3. Honey bee science activities
Butterflies travel from flower to flower feeding on nectar, and also distribute pollen.
Although they don’t get as much press, flies are pollinators,
like this flower fly,
and beetles are pollinators, as well.
Yes, insects do make our world a better place.
Which pollinators are your favorites?
After being on the look out last week for flies, it wasn’t surprising that I spotted this one resting in the sun.
I knew right away what is was.
A fly with a fuzzy body and colored wings, it had to be a similar species to the illustration I have framed on my wall.
This illustration is by Edmund J. Detmold, who was born in 1883. On the print you can see his initials, EJD, in the corner.
Detmold did this illustration for Fabre’s Book of Insects in 1921. Jean Henri Fabre was a French entomologist known for his keen observations of insects and his poetic text. The last chapter of his book is devoted to the habits of “The Anthrax Fly.”
On the back of my framed version it says,
“The Anthrax Fly:Â Her delicate suit of downy velvet, from which you could take the bloom by merely breathing on it, could not withstand the contact with rough tunnels.”
The fly in the picture is a bee fly of the genus Anthrax. These flies usually lay their eggs in bee or wasp nests, which are the tunnels from the quote. Their larvae are for the most part parasites of bees and wasps.
You can see more photographs of bee flies in the genus Anthrax at BugGuide.
Sometimes discovering an insect can feel like discovering a bit of history.
A translated version of Fabre’s Book of Insects is still available from Dover Publications, although Detmold’s illustrations are not included.
For more information, see Roberta Gibson Writes.
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