Philanthus

Insects in the genus Philanthus, like this beewolf I photographed here amongst an area of spearmint, are amazing and valuable components within a complex array of interspecific pollinator-predators. In addition to being extremely effective pollinators, they are efficient predators of other wasps and bees. An inconspicuous bee that can prey on larger bees and wasps - how cool is that (!) as they help our planet balance its ecologic scales. Being the good parents that they are they larder underground chambers with the bodies of their cousin’s becoming baby food for their larvae to feast, grow, and become next year’s wolves.

This leads me to request for anybody reading this vignette - I challenge anyone who really wants to get to know nature for what it is - raw-beautiful-violent and spend a half hour in a wildflower meadow looking, really looking, down on hands and knees at the machine while it churns and burns. Trust me, it’s not a fairytale story, more like a horror show. European hornets, praying mantis, robber and tachinid flies, yellow jackets, crab spiders, and ambush bugs, all trying to murder, devour, rape, pillage and blunder each other.

The meadows are killing fields - beautifully deadly.