Weekly Photo Challenge – Structure – Hoverfly on Hogweed

I’ve recently been sorting & rating some of my old photos, taken with various compact cameras. I had forgotton how good these small cameras can be for taking macro-style photos. The photos in this post were taken with a Canon Powershot A495, which, from what I can see, is only now available as a second hand camera.

Bumble Bee Mimicking Hoverfly on Hogweed

The featured, and first image show a bumble bee mimicking hoverfly (if anyone knows the actual species, please let me know in the comments below), most flies and bees are properly identified from the vein ‘structure’ of the wings, which alas, is beyond my skills. I can, however, ID the plant it’s resting on, which is hogweed, a member of the carrot family 🙂

The third photo shows the flower structure of the hogweed, ie in this case, a single umbel made up of a multitude of individual flowers. All members of the carrot family, have umbels of flowers, hence their scientific name of Umbelliferae.

An Umbel of Hogweed Flowers

All photos were taken in early October 2012, on the Formonthills, to the north of Glenrothes, in Fife.