Nightjar has sent us some bright yellow flowers to brighten our week.
Today’s flower is a… well, let’s call it a DYC, Damned Yellow Composite. I can never tell them apart and it’s not really important. And I also can’t identify the flies (I think?) that are visiting the flowers, so it’s all around an ID fail from me. I still hope they cheer you up!
©Nightjar, all rights reserved
©Nightjar, all rights reserved
I can’t see the rest of the plant so of course I can’t say for sure, but these look like something we call goatsbeard or salsify, here. I think the scientific name is Tragopogon. No idea about the flies.
I’d guess at one of the hawkweeds for the flower, but it’s very much a guess. I think that first insect might be some kind of bee, just because of the way it’s holding it’s wings over it’s body. The second insect is weird, such an odd abdomen, I’ve never seen anything like it, I suspect in you knew your insects, which I don’t, it is distinctive enough to id.
But as usual they are great pictures Nightjar!
I have no idea about the identification of the flower or flies, but I’m glad for the flowers. It’s snowing here today.
If I saw this in the Aussie bush I’d swear it was a Microseris lanceloata or Yam Daisy. A great local native wildflower and bush tucker plant that was the staple crop for many of our First Peoples :
https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/FACT-SHEET_Microseris_lanceolata.pdf
A.k.a. Murnong : https://tuckerbush.com.au/murnong-yam-daisy-microseris-lanceolata/
Those distinctive flower petal (tepal /sepal?) ends. Hhmm.. does the flower bud hang over like a shepherds crook / candy cane curved end before it matures and blooms do you know?
This linked article :
http://www.canberrapermaculturedesign.com.au/stories-from-our-garden-blog/how-to-identify-the-yam-daisy-microseris-lanceolata
How to identify a yam daisy (microseris lanceolata) from the Canberra permaculture Design blog has a good comparison betwenn Yam daisiies, Dandelions and Cat’s ears in case / hope that’s any use here?
Thank you everyone for trying to help with the flower ID. Based on location/abundance/time of the year my online field guide (Iberian Peninsula specific) suggests that this is likely either Crepis capillaris or Leodonton taraxacoides, but it could also be something else and I don’t remember enough about the rest of the plant to tell anything for sure. There are many look-alikes here, sometimes you can only tell them apart by looking at the roots!
I asked for help with the last insect, it is a March Fly, family Bibionidae.
The first insect is a flower fly of some kind, I’m pretty sure. If you look closely it has an orange mite attached, I only noticed that when I saw the photo on the computer.
Both insects are Diptera and that is as far as I can go. Since it is a European plant, I might be able to identify it if its range spans all the way to here, but not without leaves.
Charly,
Thanks. I may go back there tomorrow and take some photos of the whole plant and leaves. I honestly didn’t pay much attention, I was mainly focused on the flies.