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After the false alarm with the Giant Hogweed lookalike Cow Parsnip I have been seeing lots of these sheep in wolve’s clothing all over the place. The other day, as I spotted another specimen down at the Whitemud Ravine, I noticed that the inflorescence was busy with what looked like flies. I suspect the Cow Parsnip has something edible to offer to insects. While most of the insects looked like “regular” houseflies flies this is likely a complete misrepresentation of what they actually were. There seems to be a different looking fella on the far right of the flower that looks like a winged ant, perhaps it could be some sort of wasp, but I am going out on another limb here. Identifying insects is not trivial and I am an Uber noob at it to start with. It does appear the Cow Parsnips inflorescence attracts quite an attention from a wide range of insects such as mosquitoes, flies, hymenopterans, butterflies, thysanopterans and beetles.
May the curiosity be with you. This is from “The Birds are Calling” blog (www.thebirdsarecalling.com). Copyright Mario Pineda.
