Toxomerus marginatus, slow motion

Two males doing... something?

Female flies away.

One (1) luck obtained!

Unfortunately, my current lawn's syrphid biodiversity consists almost exclusively of Toxomerus marginatus, which float around in sparse clouds near tasty grass inflorescences and dandelions. Fortunately, last Saturday I photographed a rare aberrant marginatus specimen! If you view the fullsized image you may notice that its tail is crooked and has a lopsided splotch.

Minor entowalk update

I have been quite busy lately, but I finally went on another entowalk in the public garden; the foliage is weedy and quite lush now, but the milkweed had only several(?) dozen unclustered Oncopeltus adults and an adult monarch.

Syrphids (mostly ubiquitous taxa like Allograpta obliqua and Toxomerus marginatus) and coccinellids are still not uncommon though; however, it seems a few Hippodamia have now been accompanying Cycloneda sanguinea.