exonie 的最愛

I came across a few instances of mosquitoes (I believe) hanging from a thread of silk. I haven't seen this before so will have to investigate this behavior.

Update: Turns out these are Midges hanging on spider silk waiting to mate. Thanks to all who responded below!

This is a series of photos documenting a massacre of a small yellow bee (with green head) by another small (but not as small) all black, stingless bee. Here the photos focus on the larger, all black species. These black bees killed the entire colony of yellow bees, decapitating them and then apparently drinking their bodily fluids (!!). This is during the "canicula" dry spell, so perhaps due to lack of floral nectar sources. This happened along the outer wall of one of the residence buildings. The subsequent iNat report treats the smaller, yellow bee. I will post a video of the event to my Youtube channel.

The plant was a real oasis for insects in the area. On about 10 m² of it, I could photograph 23 species of insects:
Diptera

• Eristalis cf. arbustorum
• Eristalis tenax
• Eristalinus sepulchralis
• Myathropa florea
• Sphaerophoria sp.
• Syrphus sp.
• Phasiinae sp.
• Stomorhina lunata
• Gymnosoma sp.
• Tachina sp.
• Tachinidae sp.
• Graphomya sp.
• Chrysomya sp.

Hymenoptera

• Andrena sp.
• Apis mellifera
• Ammophila sp.
• Eumenes sp.
• Episyron sp.

Lepidoptera

• Lycaena tityrus
• Polyommatus icarus
• Autographa gamma
• Coenonympha pamphilus

Heteroptera

• Coreus marginatus