248/365: "If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from the land. Within a few months." ~ E. O. Wilson

4 more pictures in notes above!

Today I was working on getting pictures together for Bokeh Thursday, but my favorite pick happens to be another caterpillar, and well, I don't want you guys to get sick of them, so I went out to look for those pink flowers again! HAH! Something always comes between me and the little pink flowers!!

First it was the wind. It's one of those crazy changing-of-season days where the sun's out and it starts to rain. There was a booming thunder and lightning storm earlier, with downpours and hail, and then it all passed by and was sunny again! Crazy! However, it was very gusty, so when I finally found some of the pink flowers, they were waving around every which way, and as I bent down to take pictures, I realized I would be wasting my time so I went to find some sort of cover from the wind and hoped I might find some flowers there. When I got to a place behind a burn pile, there were no flowers but I didn't care at that point. I noticed a tiny something on a dried Tarweed flower husk and looking closer, I was excited to see that it was a fuzzy Bee Fly! It had its proboscis extended and at first glance I thought it was a huge mosquito. However, they aren't even related, and I'm glad...I have no interest in taking pictures of those nasty blood-suckers! The long proboscis you see is used to probe flowers for nectar, not to puncture flesh for blood! ICK! This fly was about 1/4" long and was very docile. At one point I accidentally bumped into the dried plant and it waved all over the place. Amazingly, the fly just hung on and then began grooming itself!! I have a picture of that to share too! :) I was so amazed when I looked at these pictures on my computer--you would never know it was so windy! This is one of the very best fly pictures I've taken so far! :D

Edward Osborne "E. O." Wilson (born June 10, 1929) is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity), theorist (consilience, biophilia), naturalist (conservationist) and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading authority. Wikipedia: E.O. Wilson

Explored on September 6, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#36).