... EARLY THIS MORNING... SOMEWHERE ON THE ROAD TO ZMINJ ...

I had to buy some stuff in the city today, so I drove there very early, and when the quick shopping was done, I continued northwards in search of a place where to take a walk surrounded by nature and photograph a few insects along the way. I found that place about 30 kilometers from the city, somewhere along the road that leads to the small town called Zminj.

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In this opening photograph, you can see a small beetle from the Rhadalidae family. The name of the species is Aplocnemus virens. If you enlarge the picture by clicking on it, you'll notice that the insect is feeding on the pollen of tiny flowers organized in rounded flowerheads on the Knautia arvensis plant.

In this wide shot, you can take a look at the scenery. The stretch of meadow, situated between the road and the woods. Knautia arvensis is visible in the foreground. In the following triptych...

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... I'm in the macro-view again. Aplocnemus virens is a small, unremarkable-looking beetle but is a species that I can't find in the area around my hometown, so this macro shooting was more exciting than it may look. In the following photograph ...

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... I'm presenting the fruits of the Cornus mas shrub. Most fruits were almost ripe and yellow. I found only a couple of completely ripe, red ones. In this photograph, I put the red fruit in the center of the composition. The green leaves and yellow fruits are there to lead the observer to the vivid core of the shot. The wide-angle lens helped me get a sense of depth by making the berries closer to the camera look bigger than the more distant ones.

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Here you can see a portrait of one single ripe fruit.

Coreus marginatus, a bug from the Coreidae family is an insect that I often encounter and photograph. That doesn't mean that I didn't have fun taking this and the following photograph.

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Each moment, each situation, they all bring something slightly different and new. In this shot, for example, the reddish dots on the upper surface of the blackberry leaf gave a unique visual appeal to the scene.

Here you can see the buds and flowers of the Pentanema squarrosum plant.

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At one point, I came across a small butterfly resting on the dry grass. Two of its wings were partially damaged and that allowed me to see a bit of the beautiful blue color on the upper side of the other two wings. The name of the species is Polyommatus amandus. The family is Lycaenidae.

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Here you can see the last insect I found today, early in the morning. It's another small beetle. This one belongs to the Buprestidae family. The name of the species is Agrilus hyperici. Females deposit eggs low on the stems of Hypericum perforatum plants in July and August. When larvae emerge, they crawl to the roots, their ideal food.

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AND THAT'S IT. I SPENT ONLY AN HOUR ON THE MEADOW, SO THE POST ISN'T VERY LONG. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.

The following links will take you to the sites with more information about the protagonists of this post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aplocnemus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_mas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knautia_arvensis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreus_marginatus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentanema_squarrosum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyommatus_amandus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrilus_hyperici