Daisy Bee

I mentioned the Gasteruption jaculator in my blip yesterday which featured the Gasteruption assectator. I was delighted to spot and photograph a female Gj today with its very long, white-tipped ovipositor. I also photographed a female Ga, which has much shorter ovipositor.

My main image is a solitary bee, which I'm afraid I haven't been able to identify, on Erigeron karvinskianus. I used to raise this perennial plant, which we called Spanish daisy and is also known as Mexican fleabane, from seed in quantity. We filled hanging baskets and I invented the term cottage garden style for a complete mixture of plants which appealed to the public and was easier for us to  create on a production line than colour schemes. Spanish daisy was one of our chain plants, which filled in between the main conventional subjects. The flowers are the size of regular daisies but are borne on arching stems and turn prettily pink as they age.