With temperatures soaring above 90 degrees today (although a dry heat, not the sticky, humid, August 90 degrees), the dogs and I searched for cool places -- inside the house with all the shades pulled; outside at the wetland edge and later a favorite swimming hole.
Irises are starting to bloom in perennial gardens, yet when I discovered a wild blue flag iris its beauty surpassed any garden variety iris. The shaded wetland shore and the cool blue of the iris offered a welcome respite from the hot afternoon sun.
Iris versicolor
If you look close at the iris (click on the photo for a larger image; someday I'll get a better camera), you may see a half dozen or more small beetles. They were scurrying around the flower. If you look really close you might be able to see that they have a long weevil-like snout. Apparently there is such a thing as an "iris snout beetle" known as the Iris weevil (
Mononychus vulpeculus). I am wondering if they are the creature in this iris.
Irises are starting to bloom in perennial gardens, yet when I discovered a wild blue flag iris its beauty surpassed any garden variety iris. The shaded wetland shore and the cool blue of the iris offered a welcome respite from the hot afternoon sun.
Iris versicolor
If you look close at the iris (click on the photo for a larger image; someday I'll get a better camera), you may see a half dozen or more small beetles. They were scurrying around the flower. If you look really close you might be able to see that they have a long weevil-like snout. Apparently there is such a thing as an "iris snout beetle" known as the Iris weevil (Mononychus vulpeculus). I am wondering if they are the creature in this iris.
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