The cacti have started to bloom! From the vibrant magenta of the hedgehog cacti to the bright pink of the mammillarias, the desert is popping with even more color than ever. The prickly pears are just beginning to flower as well, with blossoms of yellow and salmon. I’ve even spotted big, white blooms atop the saguaros. What’s nice is that all these flowers can be viewed pretty much anywhere, whether it’s in a yard, subdivision, along the roadside, or in the national park. Hidden amongst these cactus blossoms are equally-beautiful critters, like this tiny green lynx spider I spotted lurking within the flower of a mammillaria.
I wonder how much incidental pollination happens because of spiders. Or, for that matter, any predacious bug that hunts among the flowers: check out all the grains of pollen stuck to this lacewing larva.
Switching gears a bit, I’ve been seeing a lot of Bombyliid flies lately. Here are two that I have yet to identify.
They can be pretty difficult to photograph, owing to their gigantic eyes and the ability to hover and change direction on a dime. I really enjoy them, as a group of insects, as they are so variable in appearance.
Overall, the insects and spiders I’ve been seeing lately have been rather small. As it gets warmer, we’ll be seeing larger beetles, tarantulas, silk moths, and so on — but I will say that on the last day of March, I observed my first two cactus longhorn beetles of the year! Both were munching on new prickly pear pads. I was so happy to see them!
Bug Talk 