Pollinating the bitter melon blossoms

A few years ago, insects were so scarce that I had to pollinate the bitter melon flowers by hand. Only some took, and the harvest was meager. Fritillary and Skipper butterflies moved up from the south to keep us in bitter melons over the next season. But this year, even though I haven't seen any Skippers yet and the Fritillary larvae are still eating the violet leaves, everyone else is pitching in: Swallowtail butterflies, three kinds of bees, several kinds of fly, and this year's star presence in the garden, the Pale blue grass butterfly.

Imagine trying to nap in sun-drenched yellow.