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| A pollinating drone fly |
This fly, while important for pollination, is probably not native. I won't know until its identity is confirmed. It's my first fly of the season and I was happy to find it. It's been so cold and windy at my house that I have barely seen anything fly or creep about.
I was not as happy to find it on cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris). So we have a non-native fly pollinating a non-native, invasive plant in these photos.
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| Anthriscus sylvestris |
I'm going to have to stop getting exercised over non-natives. They are here to stay and I have no power over them. I'm going to sit back and simply enjoy the show. The cow parsley (also called wild chervil) is part of the carrot family. Those are the plants that black swallowtails love. I can't find a definitive answer on whether they use this one as a host plant. Cow parsley is invasive and quarantined by many states, so I can't plant it for butterflies. It will probably show up in the ditch in the road sooner or later because snow plows are one of the best spreaders of seed out there.
I will visit these plants as often as I can over the season to see if I can find any caterpillars.
_/\_/\_
