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Unusually Social - _TNY_8437

This tiny beauty on the flower of a house leek (Sempervivum tectorum) is a female long hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta).

 

I found her there while looking for carder bees and disvovered that she wasn't scared by the camera at all.

 

I could try loads of settings and levels of magnification and flash power and what not and she stayed on the flower.

 

After getting a bunch of shots, I stood up - but this made her abandon the flower and begin circling my head instead!

 

Her wings produced a rather high-pitched, almost mosquito-like, sound and she stayed around me while I walked about five meters to a different flower in the garden. By now I was quite amused by her behaviour and held out my hand and lo and behold, she landed on it - and I got a shot of her there as well (coming later).

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Uploaded on July 12, 2024
Taken on July 10, 2024