What you see is what...? You get? #entomologist

Today we're asking for some help in identification of a bee type critter and a dragonfly type critter. We've checked online and in our field guide library and haven't found identifications we're comfortable with. Over the years we've been posting this blog, we've found that sometimes it's the asking, whether or not we get an answer in the comments, that triggers the karma we need to identify the flora or fauna we're puzzled by.

First, please look at these close-ups of the "bees" that have been feeding at the grape jelly and the sugar water we've hung for orioles and/or hummingbirds. We don't think they're sweat bees or yellowjacket wasps, but if not one or the other, we're clueless. Any thoughts?

bee? wasp? what?

Photo by J. Harrington

closer-up for some detail

Photo by J. Harrington

Next is what looks like maybe a tiny dragonfly, but doesn't seem to match any of the photos in our copy of Dragonflies of the North Woods, nor any of the on-line sources we've checked. The other day, what we think was a mating pair of these briefly landed on our arm as we were dog-walking. The one in the photos we discovered about a year ago in the bird bath and rescued it by extending a finger that it climbed out of the water onto. Again, any thoughts?

dragonfly? or what?

Photo by J. Harrington

pre-rescue close-up of ?

Photo by J. Harrington

Sugar

by William Fargason

The summer my father swallowed bees

the honeysuckle outside our house bloomed

longer, larger even than usual.  In the heat of June,

he pushed the mower back and forth,

always matching the lines the  wheels made

in the grass to the edge of the new row

as he came back, his dirty white t-shirt draping

only where it wasn’t stuck to the sweat, his arms

powdered with clippings.  My father wiping his

brow.  My father saying the varmints are back at it again.

My father saying we could use the rain,

saying I should go outside more.

My father saying a lot of things.  As he

worked, he left his open can of sweet tea

on the porch railing.  Sugar is sugar to any insect.

He took a break for a drink, didn’t stop

until the can was empty.  Later, he said

he could feel them inside stinging all the way down.

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