Forbidden Fruit – Fly
An area of the front garden has been home to a growing experiment for a while now. Some successful, some not, it’s trial and error learning.
At first I was hand pollinating the melon flowers but gave up after it became apparent the plant – and garden – had a mind of its own and would produce what it will.
Of four or so developed melons one made it to the fridge and the others served as a nexus of community for the gardens tiny intelligent inhabitants. A busy metropolis for a while.
The fruit fly are a wonderful looking creature and they decimate a soft fruit crop in days. Once the melon’s skin was broken by the caterpillars the flies were in and it was over for the fruit, and the gardener …
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Where there is gain there is loss, and suffering if there is attachment to either. The fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and bad.
Who still needs it … hands up.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
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Nature's Place 
such exquisite glimpses
so glad you got one melon for your efforts
looks like you got lots of enjoyment other wise
Yes. It was delicious, the plant living just long enough for it to ripen. More on the way now, after all the rain …
I am always in awe of your stunning captures Mark. Nature is so wonderful to observe and here you did an excellent job of it as well. These Fruit Flies are so beautiful and of course you made the best out of a ‘bad’ situation. :D
Thanks Sophia. Always look on the bright side … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo – :-)
Love Monty Python. :D
Amazing photos Mark! I have never seen such clear shots of the (dreaded but beautiful) fruit fly before. I will share a link with our gardening group so they can all come and admire.
Thanks Lissa. They are not the best subjects, moving constantly as they do, but perseverance pays off.
The pix are best viewed in the larger size by clicking on one.
Stunning photographs.
Thanks Victor …
I never realised that fruit flies could be so beautiful. I thought the grains of rice on the first picture were eggs as they look like honey bee eggs. They will need to go through a larval stage before hatching out, but who knows? Amelia
Thanks Amelia. They look like egg casings to me, but they could be from a different creature. What happens next I don’t know.
Fantastic photos, their eyes might be quite beautiful but I’m glad they don’t belong in South Australia. They are illegal immigrants sometimes though.
Thanks Mac. I’ve heard they hitch-hike around the country, don’t know their history though they love soft fruit. Native to QLD I believe.
Wonderful-looking, indeed! The more I see of your photos of insects, the more homely I think we humans are by comparison. I like very much your reflection about suffering and attachment.
Thanks Cate. Homely? A fly might say that about flies … :-)
The reflection, the ability to, is what separates us from the rest of nature. Nothing else does it like us and causes such pain, or enlightenment.
Wonderful photos. I like the rear view and the last few where it appears they are emerging from the melon.
Thanks David. I see, that didn’t occur to me, they are all females depositing eggs – I suspect those small white oblong shapes on the surface in 1st picture are vacated egg sacs.