Favoritos de fmcghee

This may be the first reported record of this (locally) rare fly in BC/Canada since the 90s! (see Cannings 2006). This is one of around ten that was seen at this location. It was flying around, landing, and seemed to be feeling the sand with the end of it's abdomen.
The 3rd picture is of the habitat for reference.

On basil from the store Photo 2: x200, Photo 3 x 200 underside of a 'tape' of the mold. Photo 4 x100 x 20 ocular in Lactic acid, Photo 5 (Lower left of photo looks like an oospore of Peronosporales, with spikes coming off the antheridium - see pg 23 The 5th kingdom) and 6 - looks like brown fuzzy sporangiophore of Peronospora belbahri, maybe? Photo 7 better close up on the fuzz. Much better microscope images than mine (clearer)https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178909988

These were accidentally acquired along with a Platanthera orchid I'd collected on July 1, 2021, south of the Peace River in British Columbia, Canada, north of Jackfish Lake Road.

Host plant here:

https://inaturalist.ca/observations/101914155

These beasties turn up in the plant press, munching their way through my nice Platanthera specimen inflorescences...these are pics of a few dried out ones that were still stuck to the flowers.

Formerly Anabaena azollae. Strands of vegetative cells, plus a few nitrogen-fixing heterocysts (the larger cells) which are surrounded by sheaths. Extracted from Azolla filiculoides by squishing a piece of the fern on the microscope slide using the back of a spoon. 400x magnification.

Observation of the fern at:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189172422

Around 5pm today in the middle of the road. Large 3ft or more snake. Hisisng, loud, almost like a rattle noise. But no tail rattle. Defensive while I kept distance. Aggressive. Never took its eyes off me. Opened mouth often. No teeth. Black eyes. Black tongue. Large center. Moments prior a large barred owl flew past my windshield and watched me as I approached snake. An epic moment in my day. I was going to pick up my son who was with a native medicine woman.