According to the website of the Boulder County Audubon Society (great gallery of regional dragonflies), this is the female Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia). Why is a brown-tailed dragonfly called the Common Whitetail? Unlike the female of the species, the male has a showy white tail—described in the website as looking like a flying piece of chalk—and thus the name is applied to both. This showy-in-her-own-way female landed on a rock in my Greenwood Village yard in July 2020. Photographer: Terry Hanford
This is likely a sphinxmoth (hawkmoth), perhaps an Achemon Sphinxmoth. It is quite large for a moth, with the body about 2 inches long. It was resting in a mugo pine in my Greenwood Village yard, looking very much like a dead leaf, except when it was fluttering its wings, apparently drying out from the morning rainstorm.
Photographer: Terry Hanford
A Western tiger swallowtail feasts on Red Valerian (aka Jupiter’s Beard) in our suburban yard in Centennial, CO. Photographer: Susan Jenkins
Honey bees like this one in a Denver backyard garden are not natives of North America. They were introduced in 1622 by colonists in Jamestown. Today they play a critical role in our food supply by pollinating plants — many of which were introduced as well. Recently they have been threatened by indiscriminate use of pesticides and diseases like colony collapse disorder. Photographer: Bob Stocker Stocker Photos
