Weed Soup And A Weird Bee

taken:
day nineteen
07.08.12

My flower garden needed weeding. Bad. So it was time to get to work.

After some bribery, my husband and I recruited our boys to help. They could earn $1 for every bucket of weeds they filled. Offering a cash incentive always works.

My oldest helped my husband weed in the landscaping. My littlest kept me company in the garden. Notice I say 'kept me company' instead of 'helped'. Because a 5 year old can get distracted very easily. Instead of weeding he ended up digging holes, making some kind of weed soup in a bucket of water and just plain ol' wandered around. Not too much weeding going on, on his behalf. Although he did eventually earn that $1 by the end of the day. His older brother earned $6!

After my littlest guy had wandered back to 'help' me, this weird sorta creepy bee buzzed around us. Finally it landed and we got a good look at it {and snapped a pic}. It looked like a bee with a hunchback. Totally weird. Never seen one before.

I kind of shivered. Not sure why, I just did. Maybe because it reminded me of a very very miniature bee version of the mutated dogs in the end of the Hunger Games? But that's just my imagination being a little dramatic.

Later I googled 'hunchback bee' and what do you know, I found it. They're of the genus Lepidophora. And are actually just a fly, not a bee.

Ever encounter one of these guys buzzing around?