I'm thinking this may be Astilboides tabularis. Judging by the size of the Alchemilla mollis leaves alongside it is not big enough to be Gunnera manicata. Nor it it jagged edged and prickly. And the flowers don't fit Gunnera either.

Thanks Rachel, haven't gotten the email yet, but every so often it takes forever for the mail to get in. I'll give it a little and then email you if necessary. Britta

Thanks for the responses! I looked up "Hover fly" and the bulk of the literature refers to an insect that is too small to describe what I saw, but the "Narcissus fly" is described in some literature as hovering, so you are probably referring to the same insect. That looks to be my answer. Narcissus fly: the size is right (the grubs were large, over a centimeter long and the adults are the size of bumble-bees), the life cycle is right (the literature I saw says they remain in the larval stage over winter and pupate in the spring), the numbers are right (it says the females lay 2-3 eggs per plant before skipping to the next one), the behavior is right (they hollow out the bulbs from the inside), and there are a LOT of daffodils in the garden to attract pregnant females and expose the hippeastrums. Well, dangit. It's easy enough to protect amaryllis from narcissus flies if I ever put them out again: I can use some more neem oil or make closer inspections. But now I'm worried that we won't see many narcissus next spring. This year a lot of rain allowed the daffodils to retain their green leaves through July, so I was looking forward to a big show next year where they maintained their size and multiplied. But this summer when I was digging through the garden planting perennials, I came across a few daffodil bulbs that looked dead/rotted, and hoped it was just an anomaly and those individuals had gotten waterlogged for some reason during the rain. I hope the whole crop hasn't been destroyed by the flies. Thank you both for your answers. I didn't think I'd get an explanation so quickly!

Based on the plans, I really do NOT think you have a problem but if you try to put a second door at the top of the stairs, you will be creating one. I understand that the builder wound up having to make an extra step so that the first step down is closer to the door than it was supposed to have been and that this is making you nervous. But, unless the hinges to the door have been reversed from the way they are shown on the plan, the garage door really does NOT swing "toward" the basement opening. The hinges are on the side that is farthest from the stairs. So, the door actually swings AWAY from the stairs as it opens. At at no point would it push any object that it hit DOWN the stairs. Seriously, if you were to place a ball on the floor in the locations shown by the blue dots in the diagram below, and then open the door so that it strikes the ball, the red arrows show the direction that the ball would be pushed. At the worst possible spot, the ball would be pushed parallel to the top of the stairs, NOT DOWN the stairs. Everwhere else the force is AWAY from the staircase. Same thing if a person happened to be standing in one of these spots. They might get a bump but they would NOT be knocked down the stairs. You really should try this for yourself because seeing for yourself the direction that the ball moves may help to relieve your anxiety. Furthermore, a door of any kind across the top of the stairs will CREATE the very problem that you are worried about. The door would have to swing out into the hall because code won't allow you to have a door that swings over steps. So, assume you hinge the door on the right side of the stairs. Suppose it is standing partway open in the way in the way of a "Alex" who is heading toward the garage. Alex pushes the stairway door closed so that he can reach the garage door. But just at that moment, Bobby comes up running up the stairs toward what was an OPEN doorway. He runs smack dab into a door that is closing TOWARD him. That force of that door is directed almost straight down the steps and could literally knock Bobby down the stairs. Try it for yourself. Take a ball and a meter stick or a 3' piece of 2x4 and go out to your house. Place the ball on the floor to represent the spot where Bobby's head might be as he reaches the top of the stairs not expecting that door to suddenly close. Then set the 2x4 on the floor and hold it where on the side where the hinge would be then swing it the way a closing door would move. You can see for yourself that the ball will move in the direction show by the red arrow - i.e., DOWN the stairs. Granted, a stairway door hinged on the other side would be less dangerous because, if it were standing open, a person who is in the garage and wanted to get inside would have a hard time forcing the stairway door to close. In fact, a door standing open like this in front of another door forms a pretty effective barrier to opening the door at all. You CAN do it - but it takes awhile and usually results in scratching the blocking door up pretty badly. Do you want to be standing out in the garage with your arms full of groceries trying to get in when the door is blocked because one of your grandkids left the stairway door standing open? Finally, most people coming up the stairs and intending to go into the main part of the house will tend to stay toward the inner wall as they reach the top of the stairs (shortest path and all that) so 99.9% of the time, they won't arrive at the top step immediately in front of the door anyway. As you can see in the first diagram above, even if side of the step next to the garage is really close to the door's swing path, the other side of the first really isn't that close. Put the handrail on the inside - which is the logical place to put one anyway - and that will reinforce the tendency to stay to the right as you climb the stairs which will further reducing the chance for any possible possible collision with the door to the garage when it opens. Get a half-light door for the garage so that you can see in when opening that door and then stop worrying.