[Pollinator] Long-legged fly

[Peter Bernhardt]

Author/Photographer Rudie Kuiter (see message below) has been kind enough to share a recent photo.  He is revising his book on Orchid Pollinators of Victoria (you need a copy).  This scarid carries the complete pollinarium of the small greenwood orchid (Pterostylis nana). It is a relatively common species in eucalyptus woodlands of Victoria, Australia but I don't think I've seen them since 1980 (?) when I collected specimens near Saint Arnaud, Victoria thanks to John Kelly.  The orchids had colonized an area where prospectors once washed and separated gravel from gold nuggets.  I could not look at the photo without thinking of the poem by Yeats.  To bad Yeats couldn't have written, Like a long-legged fly upon a greenhood labellum."


Long-Legged Fly by WB Yeats

That civilization may not sink
2Its great battle lost,
3Quiet the dog, tether the pony
4To a distant post.
5Our master Caesar is in the tent
6Where the maps are spread,
7His eyes fixed upon nothing,
8A hand under his head.
9Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
10His mind moves upon silence.
11That the topless towers be burnt
12And men recall that face,
13Move most gently if move you must
14In this lonely place.
15She thinks, part woman, three parts a child,
16That nobody looks; her feet
17Practice a tinker shuffle
18Picked up on the street.
19Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
20Her mind moves upon silence.
21That girls at puberty may find
22The first Adam in their thought,
23Shut the door of the Pope's Chapel,
24Keep those children out.
25There on that scaffolding reclines
26Michael Angelo.
27With no more sound than the mice make
28His hand moves to and fro.
29Like a long-legged fly upon the stream
30His mind moves upon silence.

Peter
________________________________
From: Rudie Kuiter <rudiekuiter at optusnet.com.au>
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2019 6:22 PM
To: Peter Bernhardt <peter.bernhardt at slu.edu>
Subject: Re: Locations

Hi Pater,
To show I'm still active with pollinators, attached a shot from yesterday. This is the detail I like to get and replace the poor ones in the book. Took about 40 pics and got all the detail possible, including wing-venation. It is a member of Sciaridae, male, possibly Trichosia. Body length 2.3 mm. This was on a colony of Pterostylis nana in Langwarrin.
Cheers,
Rudie

Rudie Kuiter
rudiekuiter at optusnet.com.au<mailto:rudiekuiter at optusnet.com.au>
Aquatic Photographics
PO Box 124
Seaford VIC 3198
Australia
042 8418452
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