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Pollinator Post 3/17/23 (2)

More flowers have appeared on the Silverleaf Lupine, Lupinus albifrons at Diablo Bend.

But, better watch out.  Right by the trail, this Pacific Coast Tick, Dermacentor occidentalis is questing on an immature inflorescence of Silverleaf Lupine.
The Lupin Aphids, Macrosiphum albifrons (family Aphididae) have spread to all the inflorescences on this plant.  Several generations have been propagated by cloning or asexual reproduction.  Do you see an egg of a Hover Fly (family Syrphidae)? It looks like a miniature rice grain situated near the group of baby aphids at the base of the spike.  Female Syrphids tend to lay their eggs among or near aphid colonies to ensure that their young would have plenty to eat when they hatch out.  Syrphid larvae are voracious aphid predators.  
Another aphid predator is here for the feast – a Convergent Lady Beetle, Hippodamia convergens (family Coccinellidae). 
An American Winter Ant, Prenolepis imparis is slowly approaching a large Lupin Aphid, Macrosiphum albifrons on a lupine flower bud.  What is the ant after?  Honeydew, of course.  
Honeydew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by aphids and some scale insects as they feed on plant sap.  When their mouthpart penetrates the phloem, the sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced out of the anus of the aphid.  Yums!
A Black-tailed Bumble Bee, Bombus melanopygus comes in for a landing, guided by the lupine flower.  See those dark lines on the wing petals that converge toward the base of the petals where the nectar is stored?  Commonly referred to as “nectar guides”, these markings serve to guide pollinators to their sweet reward.  Bumble bees invariably land on the horizontal surface on top of the wing petals with their tongue extended, ready to sip nectar.  
A Digger Bee (tribe Anthophorini, family Apidae) flies around me in large circles, buzzing loudly.  I look up to see a hole on top of a large rock on the bank right in front of me.  Is that the bee’s nest?  Is that why she’s so annoyed with me?  The hole is less than two feet from the other bee burrow I discovered on 3/15.  Although these ground-nesting bees are solitary, they tend to nest in aggregations.  
The bee makes a bee line for the hole (puns fully intended), and disappears swiftly into it as I watch.  
In a split second, a young Fence Lizard lunges toward the bee but misses.  When I recover enough from the shock to take a picture, the lizard is sprinting away.  Was it waiting in ambush outside the bee’s burrow?
This burrow is on the ground, on the edge of the trail.  Its owner has been busy house-cleaning after the rains, dumping clods of soil  outside the entrance.  Is it the nest of a False Tarantula, Calisoga longitarsis?  I can’t be sure as I don’t see any silk lining the burrow. 
 
Aah, the Wood Strawberry, Fragaria vesca is blooming!

Curious about the Pollinator Posts? 

Who created the Pollinator Posts?2025-12-09T10:27:17-08:00

The Pollinator Post is a photo journal created by May Chen, a local naturalist.  It started many years ago, as simple e-mails sharing the excitement of discovery with fellow hikers and gardeners.  The burgeoning readership eventually necessitated the creation of the Google Group, the Native Gardeners three years ago.  Now the journal has found a permanent home at our website, with easy access to all.  Let May guide you through the miniature world of the creepy crawlies, regaling you with the drama that is happening right under our noses.  Enjoy!

May likes to describe herself as a career volunteer.  She has been a docent at Martin Griffin Preserve in West Marin for more than 20 years.  Her passion for plants and insects has led her naturally to the study of pollination biology.  She has taught docent-training classes on pollination at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden.  As a volunteer with the Friends of Sausal Creek, May has helped in the native plant nursery and tended the BridgeView Pollinator Garden.  She enjoys exploring the East Bay parks and gardens, and shares her observations on the Pollinator Post.  

Because of her initial focus on pollinators, especially bees, May has titled her missives “Pollinator Post”.  However, over the years of observation, she realized that we should view the botanical world as an interconnected whole that embraces other plant-insect interactions that are often overlooked – e.g. predator/prey, decomposer/recyclers, host/parasites, each contributing to the health and stability of the collective.  Too often we are quick to judge insects as “good” or “bad”, ignoring their true roles in the ecosystem.  We need to understand these relationships if we were to be good stewards of our gardens, our farms and wild lands.

To see more of May’s work, see the following article and videos:

The Buzz in My Garden by May Chen, originally published in the Regional Parks Botanic Garden quarterly newsletter Manzanita in 2018

Life and Death on Milkweed

Life and Death on Silverleaf Lupine

How were the photos taken?2026-01-06T09:08:09-08:00

The photos in the older Pollinator Posts were taken with a series of Canon Power Shot point-and-shoot cameras with built-in macro capabilities.  Once May discovered the amazing convenience of the iPhone camera in 2019, she gave away all her other camera equipment.  Since then she has taken all her photos with her trusty iPhone 11Pro.  The close-ups are taken with a Sandmarc attachable 10X macro lens.  “Anybody with a cell phone can do it!”

 

There are countless other attachable macro lens available on Amazon, some as inexpensive as $30, that also work  well.  In fact, here’s one recommended by a bee enthusiast friend, Emil. The disadvantage of this lens, when compared to the Sandmarc, is that it clips on, and the clip could get in the way. 

In what area, locations, and when were the photos taken?2025-12-08T15:17:07-08:00

The photos in the Posts were taken in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; they were taken at Crab Cove and Bay Farm Island in Alameda, Skyline Gardens and the Bridgeview Pollinator Garden in Oakland, Mendocino Park in Richmond, numerous sites in the East Bay Regional Park District, such as the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, and Inspiration Point, other open space areas in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. and occasionally at private gardens, among other locations..

The Pollinator Posts began on July 12, 2019. Post creation is paused at the end of each year, during the quiet time for insects, and resumes in the following spring.

How can the Posts help me garden for wildlife?2025-12-08T15:16:39-08:00

Browse the Posts to see what insects you might look for in your own garden on certain plants at a specific time of year. For example, you could search on “August”, and among the results you’ll see that you could be looking for leaf cutter bees on aster and, early in the morning, male longhorn bees sleeping on buckwheat or tarweed. If you have soap plant (aka soaproot) you might see the caterpillar of the western brown elfin butterfly, or dance flies.

Search on ‘pale swallowtail caterpillar” and you’ll see that it can be found on coffee berry, as can miner bees, hover flies, lady beetles, and more. Try it! Search on “clarkia,” “sunflower,” “gum plant,” or “acmon blue butterflies” and see what you discover!

How can I search the posts?2025-12-08T15:16:05-08:00

The search engine looks at every word in a post: you can search on an insect, such as caterpillar, a plant, like lupine, a month, or a location.

Can I use the photographs or text in these Posts?2025-12-08T15:15:11-08:00

The photographs and text in the Pollinator Posts are licensed as

CC BY-NC (Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial). Basically, this means that the content can be used by others as long as they properly attribute it to © May Chen, and use it for non-commercial purposes.

Thank you to…2025-12-09T10:28:01-08:00

May Chen, for allowing her work to be made available to the general public on the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour’s website. 

David Faden, for solving the technical aspects of how to get the Posts, which were in an invite-only email Google Group, onto the Tour’s website. This was complicated, as you can see here.

Jeffrey Samorano, owner of Fearless Digital Journey, for integrating the posts into WordPress and making them functional and attractive.

Michael May, Clytia Curley, and Robin Mitchell for their help with earlier versions of this project. 

It was a pleasure working with all of them on this project. 

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