Thank you both for writing. Jean, you're right, it's a flower fly! thanks. i'm impressed. i found a webpage that said: "Although flower flies resemble bees, they can be distinguished by their wings: flower flies (like all flies) have only 2 wings. Bees have 4 wings." The website also said: "These flies are able to hover in mid-air, much like hummingbirds." That is exactly what my guys do! and Panzees, you're right too. the webpage said: "Flower flies are often called "sweat bees" because of their resemblance to bees and because they often land on human skin to gather sweat. Flower flies cannot sting, but there are small black bees in the family Halictidae (also commonly called sweat bees) that also gather sweat, and will occasionally sting humans while they are doing so. Often, an innocent flower fly is blamed for a sting caused by a "true" sweat bee." the website is about flowerflies in Kentucky, but it's useful even if i live in Maryland. Thanks again! Here is a link that might be useful: Flower flies

it is always nice to see pictures of different figs,good job and thanks.Ciao, Giuseppe

Loooove your butterfly Jim!!! Oh, Pelicanhead that is a fantastic honeybee shot!!! How in the heck is did you get yours to stay so still! My photos are terrible! I can never get my honeybees to stay still enough!!! Marina, at least we can enjoy the photo for its gorgeous lighting and beauty and it's a great insect shot as well! The details of Lyda's petals and buds, and the veining of the leaves is very striking! The insect is a wasp. You can see the nice sharp detail of its abdomen and the ridging that segments it. It's cool too, Marina! Honeybees have a very smooth oval outline to their abdomen, it always must have fuzziness and there's no ridging/indentations. The healthier and older the bee, the more glossy highlights you will see in the fuzzy fur. Lol, Ingrida, you can shake a honeybee anytime! They are very shy and will just fly away!! I constantly am aggravating honeybees with my misaim with Eluane's frisbee. I even have to untangle my frisbee from the Russian sage which is loaded with honeybees. The only time they will sting is if you wrap your fingers around it or try to squash it with your bare hands, lol! Not so with yellowjackets! I have heard of horror stories about yellowjackets doing a chasedown, haha!

What you want to do is put a trellis fence around the hive so the bees fly above human height. We have 3 hives in our backyard and have done this. They really fly up and out of the human height area. I will take a picture tomorrow to post. You can also plant a vine on the trellis to make it pretty. You also want to make sure you have water available for them in the area so they do not go to neighboring pools, etc. I put a brick in the base of a large flower pot (12 inches in diameter) and they flock to the brick and drink.