Butterflies and Insects
Our garden and woods are alive with pollinators.
A Male Monarch Butterfly visiting our coneflowers. Summer, 2025
A Black Swallowtail butterfly floated through the garden and paused on catmint. One of three shots. June 27, 2025
A Black Swallowtail butterfly floated through the garden and paused on catmint. One of three shots. June 27, 2025
A Black Swallowtail butterfly floated through the garden and paused on catmint. One of three shots. June 27, 2025
While waiting on the patio for hummingbirds to show up, along came this big, doofy, fluffy, bumblebee buzzing around the figwort. Figwort is an excellent food source for pollinators (this one is early figwort or lancelet figwort). June 20, 2025
From June 15, 2025...this was one of the few honey bees I've seen so far. This one is visiting catmint in our pollinator garden. It was a hard winter, and some contractors report frost down to seven feet. Everything started slowly this spring.
I believe this is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. The flower is False Indigo in our pollinator garden. This is one of the few butterflies I've seen so far this Spring. June 16, 2025
A big, busy, buzzy, furry, doofy, bombus was visiting our Early Figwort (the flower in the lower right corner). Bumblebees are at last out, and they are at least a week or two behind last year due to the hard winter with little snow cover. Early figwort has small flowers loaded with nectar and it attracts pollinators including hummingbirds. June 5, 2025
This is a six-spotted tiger beetle. I know, there aren't any spots, but that's a variation. These fly and run incredibly fast. They're predators, and hunt insects and spiders. June 1, 2025
The first Lacewing of the season perched on bee balm.
The first Lacewing of the season perched on bee balm.
A native bee, I'm not sure which one, visited our Jacob's Ladder. May 24, 2025.
Found a patch of Virginia Bluebells. These seem earlier than others in Southern Minnesota. Got a quick shot of a native bee for a bonus. April 26, 2025
Honey bee in our wildflower garden visiting asters, Fall, 2024
Male metallic green sweet bee in poppy mallow from our wildflower garden, Summer, 2024
Honey Bee at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Summer of 2024
Bumblebee on purple allium in our wildflower garden during the summer of 2024
Fritillary butterfly (I think an Aphrodite...I thought once it was a Great Spangled) on coneflower
Monarch on Meadow Blazing Star
Spicebush Swallowtail visiting bee balm in the wildflower garden
Soldier beetle on Jerusalem Artichoke
Red Admiral visiting a dandelion at a nearby state park
Giant Swallowtail visiting coneflower
Friendly neighborhood bumblebee on Allium
Black Thorn-footed Mason Wasp, Zethus spinines spininess
Soldier beetle on golden rod
Crevice Mason Wasp Parancistrocerus leionotus leionotus (I think...let me know if you have a better identification)
Syrphid fly visiting aster
Queen Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) coming in for a landing on early figwort
Wood-boring Mason Wasp (euodynerus foraminatus) checking out the figwort. A shutter speed of 1/800 isn't nearly fast enough to freeze those wings. Shot with a Nikon Z8 and Nikkor 400mm VR S from about 13 feet.
Bumblebee and figwort. With a shutter speed of 1/3200 those wings still aren't quite frozen.
Eastern swallowtail visiting northern blue flag iris
Great Black Wasp on Clustered Mountain Mint
Giant Swallowtail
Swallowtail visiting Anise Hyssop
Mexican Grass-carrying Wasp (Isodontia mexicana) visiting Clustered Mountain Mint
Male metallic green sweat bee visiting Ohio Spiderwort
Tawny-edged Skipper (I think...corrections are welcome)
A skipper (tawny-edged or mulberry-winged?) skipper visiting Southern Blue Flag Iris in our creek bed.
Syrphid flies visiting Ohio Spiderwort in our wildflower garden. This year, bunnies and deer seem to not eat the spiderwort.
A monarch caterpillar found this morning. The wildflower garden has some success!
A second monarch caterpillar. We're hoping for more!
And, milkweed stem weevils. I don't think they really qualify as pollinators. They're ok with me as long as they don't hurt the milkweed.
A robust looking Syrphid fly, subspecies Eristalis, I think. They specialize in mimicking honey bees. This one is visiting a lance-leaved coreopsis.
A bee fly (Bombylius spp.) visiting Bradbury Bee balm. These guys look like a ball of fluff with wings and a long proboscis.
A question mark butterfly. No kidding, that's its name.
Bee balm for the bumblebee.
Another Aphrodite fritillary.
Graceful Grasshopper (Melanoplus gracilis). Not exactly a pollinator, but I thought he was cool.
A Clouded Sulfur Butterfly
Bee Balm makes good honey
Blue vervain makes good honey, too.
A cuckoo wasp visiting our Clustered Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum).
A Great Black Wasp visiting clustered mountain mint. These are digger / hunter wasps.
A metallic green sweat bee (Augochlorella) that is larger and more iridescent than Augochlora. Found in the garden on clustered mountain mint.
A Syrphid fly (not a bee!) on mountain mint.
Bumblebee coming in for a landing
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail visiting Obedient Plant
A Monarch Butterfly on Blue Sage