Hover fly on Gomphrena globosa

The “bug” is probably “Toxomerus marginatus,” a species of hover fly in the Syrphidae family of flies with common names “flower flies” and “hover flies”.
Species page at BugGuide, http://bugguide.net/node/view/8221

Whatever the insect, it’s on a Gomphrena globosa ‘Fireworks’ “inflorescence.”
Species page at PhytoImages, http://phytoimages.siu.edu/cgi-bin/dol/dol_terminal.pl?taxon_name=Gomphrena_globosa&rank=binomial

Photo taken at SIUC Plant Biology Greenhouse, http://www.plantbiology.siu.edu/facilities/plant-biology-facilities/greenhouse/index.php

A photo of a full inflorescence: http://phytoimages.siu.edu/imgs/paraman1/r/Amaranthaceae_Gomphrena_globosa_77456.html

1 year ago (“Hoya australis”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2013-05-07
2 years ago (“In honor of the super-moon?”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-05-07
3 years ago (“Well, somebody has to go first!”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-05-07

[Danette Thompson]

Very cool.

[Rick Schies]

A great close-up Thom, nice detail and also some very nice color

[Lindy]

Fabulous macro Thom. Great capture.

[MaryBeth Dailey]

BAM!~ This is perfect! Perfect light, flower, pose, focus....all of it. Fav Until someone asked me this spring (about my pic) I did not know what those bulb looking things on their faces are...but they are part of their antennae. You probably knew that.

[Thom Mitchell]

@espyetta I did *not* know that, so thank you, MaryBeth! Still trying to catch up!

[MaryBeth Dailey]

@rhoing You and me both, Thom! I am sorting through lots of nature pics from the past two weekends, then have to post a 'phone" pic for each day last week....need...to...catch...up. haha But I like to look through my nature shots slowly and pick the best one. Btw, my husband got me a cheap little sit up on kayak for my birthday this past week! Now I will be able to paddle up the creek and along the shores and see cool stuff. I am so excited.

[Thom Mitchell]

@espyetta I have "a couple" of wedding photos to go through and that only gets me to last Sunday. BTW, if you saw my last-day-of-class post, http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2014-05-02, there is an update: I'm probably going to be "un-retiring." Silly State of Illinois politicians...

[MaryBeth Dailey]

@rhoing Okay, I went to see that photo. What a handsome classroom/lecture hall, btw. SO you retired due to some law that made it better to do it, and now they have changed the law so you are going back? Here, they told teachers in my county that they could retire by Dec. and avoid a small cut in retirement payout and many retired. You wonder if it is always money that is the impetus, or they think older folks won't join up on their new methods of teaching "workshop" model, E class, computer, tech world stuff?

[Thom Mitchell]

@espyetta A bill passed in December had (are you sitting down?) a typo. Under that bill, if I buy some service credit to hit my maximum, I would retire on June 30, 2014. If I remain employed on July 1, 2014, my benefit would decrease more than 15% and it would take me 3½ years to get back to the June 30 benefit level. So I set the gears in motion to retire June 30. The state legislature shows no signs of doing anything, but the Attorney General has signed an agreement with an annuitants association to effectively fix the typo. If the relevant court signs off on that agreement, then it behooves me to remain employed. Sigh. I was just getting adjusted to the concepts of "retired" and "retiree" and now I probably won't. With a daughter getting married on Mother's Day, the last couple of weeks have been a roller coaster ride...