Tag Archives: Flies

Looking back at 2024 – Part 1

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii
January: A Feather-legged Fly (Trichopoda pennipes) on a Tree Heliotrope (link).

Sunday Stills challenge theme this week and next week is ‘Your 2024 Year-in-Review.’ See more responses here. As usual, I’m going with a favorite photo from each month of 2024, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in. This week’s post is for January through June. See the rest of the year next week.

A Ring-billed gull in Hawaii
February: A Ring-billed Gull struts at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (link).
A woman walks on the beach at Kohanaiki Park in Hawaii
March: A woman walks the beach at Kohanaiki Beach Park (link).
Tiki torches burn against a backdrop of palm trees in Hawaii
April: Tiki torches at Mauna Kea Resort (link).
A Dwarf Moray Eel in the waters off Hawaii
May: A Dwarf Moray Eel (link).
Long-spined Urchins in Hawaii
June: A pair of Long-spined Urchins in Kawaihae Harbor (link).

The Numbers Game #41

A small plane flies low over Upolu Airport, Hawaii.
A fly-in at Upolu Airport.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 162. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

A praying mantis and a fly
A fly on a praying mantis.
Street art in Hawi, Hawaii
Street art in Hawi.
A red-crested cardinal
A Red-crested Cardinal.
A dry cow pasture in North Kohala, Hawaii
Dry pasture at Upolu.
Irrigation in North Kohala, Hawaii
Irrigation for dry pastures.
A cow and her new calf
A cow with her newborn calf.

A square deal for bugs

A Seven-spotted ladybug on a leaf in Hawaii
A Seven-spotted Lady Beetle pauses on a leaf.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘All about bugs.’ See more responses here.

Also posted for Becky’s Squares: Seven. See more responses here.

Ants and aphids on a crown flower leaf in Hawaii
Ants farming aphids on a Hawaiian Crown Flower leaf.
A Black Soldier Fly in Hawaii
A Black Soldier Fly on a window.
A Bee on tree heliotrope flower in Hawaii
A bee on Tree Heliotrope flowers

The bugs in the next gallery were all on the same Monstera leaf, which had accumulated falling flowers from a palm tree.

A Fly in Hawaii
A Scholastes bimaculatus fly rummaging in the flowers.
A Banana Stalk Fly in Hawaii
A Banana Stalk Fly with a smaller fly.
A Black Earwig on palm tree flowers in Hawaii
A Black Earwig hunts through the flowers.

The Numbers Game #11

A distant view of Pu'u O'o vent from the Napau Trail at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
A view of Pu’u O’o vent, when it was erupting, from the Napau Trail in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 132.

You can see more responses here.

A parachuting clown hangs from a tree.
A flying clown. That’s all the world needs!
A grasshopper on a curved stem
A grasshopper keeping watch.
Banana stalk flies mating on the spadix of an Anthurium schlechtendalii
Two Banana Stalk Flies doing, well, you know what.
A rock sits balanced on the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii
A well balanced rock on the North Kohala coast.
Post office boxes in Hawaii
Couldn’t resist taking this one at my local post office. I can run this several times!

Feather-legged Fly

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii
A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii

I was photographing bees on a tree heliotrope in Kawaihae when I saw this fly. It’s a new one for me, so I was happy to get decent photos and to be able to identify it afterwards.

This is a Feather-legged Fly (Trichopoda pennipes). It’s one of those flies which lays its eggs on host bugs, such as leaf-footed bugs and stink bugs. On hatching, the larvae make for the bug’s interior and develop safely within. The end product is a new fly and a dead bug. Because some of the bugs it uses as hosts are crop pests, it’s considered a beneficial insect.

The bottom photo shows why it got its name!

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii

Am I bothering you?

A cow with a bird perched on its back in Hawaii

On a recent walk at Upolu, the wind was very light, an unusual occurrence in that area. As I walked past the cattle pasture, I got a long stare from this one. But it turned out, irritating as I can be, the flies were a greater bother. The whole herd was engaged in some vigorous tail swishing to very little effect. Luckily the winds returned the next day and most of the flies were blown away.

A cow surrounded by flies in Hawaii
A cow surrounded by flies in Hawaii
A cow surrounded by flies in Hawaii