Strawberry Flowers

 

Woodland Strawberry, Fragaria vesca

Wild strawberries have been blooming sensibly this week in a sheltered glade at Halibut Point where unseasonable weather elements are tempered by wind-breaking trees around a sun-drenched meadow. The flowers presage the pea-sized red fruit that they engender with the help of pollinators on these stems, in late spring or early summer.

Syrphid Fly, Toxomerus marginatus

All manner of insects great and small have hatched or come out of hibernation for their first meal as adults.

Syrphid Fly, Neoascia species

Most of the visitors are Lilliputians on flowers that are only five-eighths of an inch across.

Ants clambering across the stamens looks relatively titanic,

although some miniscule species are scarcely noticeable on the edge of a petal.

Parasitic Fly, Tachinidae

A creature with the proportions of an ordinary house fly looks imposing on one of these flowers.

Ground Beetle, Lebia viridis

Flitting, hovering, crawling, the emergent insects come forth with remarkable features, specializations, and appetites.

Lasioglossum species

Many of the tiny wild bees are classified in the largest of all bee genera, Lasioglossum, highly variable in size, coloration, and sculpture. In one form or another they are the most frequently encountered bees on Halibut Point.

Metallic Sweat Bee, Lasioglossum

This bee is about 3/8" long. The fly below it burrowing into the flower corolla, though miniscule, has all the working parts and functions of familiar insects. 

All the strawberry flowers are facing south, which makes an orderly business for the photographer and keeps the warm sun on his back during motionless vigils. The over-the-shoulder light makes for nice illumination, though it requires care not to cast alarming shadows toward the insect. The best approach is at an oblique angle, steadying and focusing the camera from a yogi master crouch.