ANOTHER COLORFUL EXPLORATION OF THE MEADOWS

I spent another day on the meadow searching for interesting species and situations. It was a two - part action, I went once in the morning and once in the evening, gladly skipping the hot middle section of the day.
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I'll start this photographic report with some shots taken on the Bindweed flowers, of the species Convolvulus arvensis more precisely. I don't know the name of the minuscule pollen eater on this opening shot ... but ...

... I can tell you that these beetles are a very common encounter on this type of flowers.

Here the beetle is posing on the edge of the petals ... looks like the insect is watching the big world beyond the small Bindweed trumpet.

On this shot you can take a good look at the grains of pollen on its back.
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The Beetles are sharing the flowers with some other insects ... various flower flies ... like the Scaeva pyrastri on this photograph ...
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... or Syrphus torvus ...

... some extremely small flies that i couldn't indentify ...
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... and some small bug nymphs ... of the Lygus pratensis species.

On this shot you can see a bunch of beetles with some minuscule, amber colored fly ... and on the following enlargeable photograph ...
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... you can take a better look at the same, partially eaten flower.

On the composite flower heads of these Knautia arvensis flowers ...

... I found a different set of creatures.
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This pollen beetle is much smaller than those from the Bindweed flowers ... and they were very small already.

These minuscule caterpillars are approximately the same size. They enter the tiny florets ( small flowers that make the composite flower head) to feed on the pollen at the bottom.
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I don't know which moth or butterfly will they become in the near future ... but I saw them grow much bigger ... these small ones were recently hatched.
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Here I also encountered this interesting fly with long proboscis ... I don't know the exact species ... it has some similarities with Bee - flies ...
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... on this photograph the fly has assumed a funny pose while cleaning its head.
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Here is another amazing fly that often visits these flowers ... the very beautiful and colorful Myopa dorsalis .
A bit further ... on some leaf for a change ...

... I found this other decorative species, with beautiful wings on display ... Dictya umbrarum.

A few fennel plants were growing nearby ... and their leaves were covered with aphids.
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A dozen or so larvae of the Coccinella septempunctata Lady beetle were feeding on this living carpet made of aphids.

On this photograph the larvae is eating the dark aphids while another, vivid green one is standing still behind her.
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There were some aphids also on the neighboring stems of grass ... not many of them ... and there another predatory larvae was haunting ... this is also a Lady beetle larva, but of a much smaller species ... I don't know which one exactly because a few small, not well known lady beetle have similar waxy larvae.

With this lovely little flower ... the morning part of the journey ends.

Later, in the afternoon, I caught on photograph the mating of these Zygaena moths ...

... and this small Crab spider posing on white petals of the Tripleurospermum inodorum flower.

I encountered also this interesting caterpillar ... that I never saw before.
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This larva was feeding on some thorny shrub at the edge of the meadow.
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Also there, on the leaf of some climbing plant that was partially covering the shrub ... I found this strange minuscule creature ... that looks a bit like some shrimp. This is a Hairy Springtail ( Orchesella villosa )

Back in the central part of the meadow ...
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... I photographed this bug ... that I saw for the first time ever ... and I didn't found on my Internet search ... so there is nothing I can tell you about this species.

For these lovely rounded bugs ( and again, I couldn't find out the name of the species) that look like some black pearls ...

... it was mating time.

As the evening was approaching ...
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... I was photographing these lovely black bees ... with white faces ... I mean, I think this is some wild bee species, but I'm not sure ... If not bees, these must be some wasps.

They are herding together at the end of the day ...
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... to sleep in clusters ...
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... among the tiny florets of the large Wild carrot flowers ... where they look merged with the structure of the flowers.
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I find these lovely alien faces on their bed of flowers extremely cute ... and kind of cartoonish.

I was able to get just a few more shots before the dark ... these small moths ...

... another species that I never noticed before ...

... and this very common Blue butterfly ... that was ready to quietly spend the night sitting on some dandelion - like plant.
As always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work.