Virginia creeper is one of those plants you have to keep an eye on and hack back when it goes too far. It grows so robustly because it’s a native plant, and also because it’s a native, the bees love it so much that you can hear the vines buzzing.
There’s honeybees this year and bumblebees looking absurdly huge on the tiny flowers. There’s my friends the syrphid flies, Toxomerus marginatus.
They’re after the pollen, as you can see by the green sweat bee that’s completely covered. I think the little gray bee, the one that’s more in scale with the flowers than the bumblebee, is a leafcutter bee, especially since they’re supposedly fond of Virginia creeper. They’re so small, it’s hard to be sure.
Finally, the white-faced fly in the last picture is a thick-headed fly, possibly Physocephala tibialis. I don’t like the note on the info page that it parasitizes bumblebees. Go away!
Writing Every Day 