Shot Yesterday - flowers, bugs, blue, fado

This is the stem with the aphid that I posted the other day. While doing that post, I came across this about ants and aphid.

Some species of ants are attracted to and feed on the honeydew. Ants will protect the aphids from natural enemies and will actually carry them to new plants when the food source is depleted. Some ants even go so far as to build small shelters for the aphids or to keeping root-feeding aphids inside their own nests. A few species of aphids have become so dependent on their ants that they won't even excrete honeydew unless stimulated by an ant! However, if aphid numbers get too high the ants will feed a few aphids to their larvae. And the ants are better at protecting their aphid herds from some natural enemies (such as ladybugs) than others (such as lacewings or hover fly larvae). No only do they fight off or kill the predators, but they also remove the eggs of some

Perhaps I wiped out this guy's herd and he was looking for strays.


This raises the question for me about how many different flies we have in Alaska and which one this is. But googling flies and Alaska results in webpages of fishing flies.
















Turtle Pond has a page on Alaska Dragonflies which identifies this as a bluet and answers:

What's the difference between dragonflies and damselflies?

Dragonflies and damselflies are very similar insects that belong to the same scientific Order-- Odonata. Dragonflies tend to be larger, with thicker bodies. They sit with their wings spread out to the side. The delicate little damselflies usually fold their wings behind their backs when they rest. Spreadwings are the exception. They are damselflies that usually hold their wings out, like dragonflies.

Both dragonflies and damselflies start out life as aquatic insects, emerging from the water as winged adults. Both spend most of their adult life flying, preying on small insects. They are beneficial at every stage of life, never harmful to humans. They are all fascinating and beautiful critters.

Here's the lamium's yellow flower.












AKPetmom thought the early greens I posted earlier were the mountain bluet. But before posting this, I found a picture of a mountain bluet online, and this clearly isn't it. So, this is once again in the mystery flower category.




I couldn't help this newly blue garage when I went on my run yesterday.








And last night we saw the movie 'Fado' at Bear Tooth. An unusual movie that consisted of one song after another, mostly done in a studio, sung by different singers, accompanied by musicians playing guitars and other mandolin like instruments I wouldn't dare try to name. The picture's blur reflects the slow shutter speed, not the film itself. Here's a YouTube of the preview of the movie.