MORNING WITH MOTHS, BINDWEED & SOME OTHER STUFF

I spent some time in the meadow today. One of the meadows along the road between the towns of Zminj and Svetvinchenat.

It was early in the morning and the first thing I noticed was this small moth on the bindweed flower. In this opening photograph, the moth is resting on the petals ...

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... but most of the time he (or she) was busy sucking the nectar from the center of the trumpet-like flower.

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At one point a bee landed on the pistil and stamens, so the moth withdrew to the edge of the petals.

When it comes to the names of the species, I wasn't able to identify this small bee ...

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... but the moth is the Xystophora pulveratella ...

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... and the flower belongs to the Convolvulus arvensis plant.

I took one more shot, and then ...

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... I walked to the dense vegetation on the edge of the meadow. These small fruits of the Euonymus europaeus shrub were photographed there.

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On that same plant, I found this lovely green caterpillar.

This is the larva of the Ligdia adustata, a moth from the Geometridae family. These larvae feed on Euonymus europaeus and some other related plants from the Celastraceae family.

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Back in the central part of the meadow, I saw that some Convolvulus arvensis flowers have holes in their petals. Very soon, I found out who makes them.

This is the very young, wingless nymph of the Phaneroptera nana bushcricket.

This lovely flower of the Silene latifolia was photographed a couple of meters further.

Here you can take a better, more up-close look at the yellow anthers.

On the Trifolium pratense plant, I photographed a butterfly.

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The small Aricia agestis from the Lycaenidae family.

On one of the nearby plants, I photographed this small fuzzy fly with a long proboscis. Can't tell you the name of the species, but the genus is definitively Geron, and the family is Bombyliidae.

This robber fly was photographed on the small oak tree surrounded by shrubs, at the edge of the meadow. The family is Asilidae, but with quite a few almost identical-looking species present in the area, I can't tell you which one exactly is this.

The predatory fly has just caught a small insect. It looks like some kind of aphid.

On one of the nearby shrubs ...

... I found an interesting planthopper.

The Dictyophara europaea, commonly known as the European lantern fly.

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Before returning home, I walked one more time to the center of the meadow ...

... and there, I photographed one more Xystophora pulveratella moth.

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I spent a couple of hours walking and sniffing around. It was a nice morning and a fairly good macro-safari.

On the way back home, while passing through the town of Vodnjan, I had the opportunity to photograph the train and make a GIF out of those consecutive shots.

The following links will take you to the sites with more information about some of the protagonists of this post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://www.leps.it/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyophara_europaea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligdia_adustata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulus_arvensis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaneroptera_nana
https://leptiri.hr/

AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.



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14 comments
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spent a few hours in the meadows, looking for some species of insects,That's a fun thing, and some of the types of insects you show, robber flies that make me see them again and again..that's woooow...

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Great captures @borjan 😊
Love the moth and it’s golden colour. The butterfly is stunning.
The details of the fuzzy fly is fascinating. Thank you for sharing these photographs.
Love how you made the gif on the end of the train passing by. Very cool. 😎
Have a wonderful weekend 👋🏻☀️

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Great photography you really have here. Truly captivating

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Hello friend @borjan, what great pictures I like how the colors look are spectacular, excellent shots look amazing. Cheers.

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Hey man, how are you doing? It seems the drought period is slowly moving away and meadows are filling up with creatures again.

I think that bee is European black be known as Apis mellifera mellifera, if it is. You know if you hold the Golden moth with finger, you'll find your fingers painted gold with its golden wings.

The Dictyophara europaea, this one is new to me as well, haven't seen such a conical body insect.

Excellent work bro. Keep it up.

!PIZZA

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Thanks. 🙂Yes, there is more humidity and more life. I saw some mushrooms yesterday. This and spring are the most exuberant seasons here.

Yes, the moth with golden scales can leave a nice decoration on the skin 😃ideal for carnival time.

Have a great day.

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The paint is actually minute scales on their wings, and it is a protection for their wings from weather and other environmental effects.

Thanks and wish you a nice week ahead.

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Why would the bee bully the moth though😭😭😭.
Plenty flowers on the field.😢♥️

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That golden sheen is so lovely on the Xystophora pulveratella. The delicacy of the wings on the European lantern fly is fascinating.

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Excelente variedad de fotos de insectos y flores, ojalá vinieras a Venezuela para que fotografiarlas nuestra inmensa variedad de insectos y vegetacion

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También deseo visitar Venezuela. 🙂 Seguramente sería una gran foto - experiencia. Tal vez algún día lo haré.

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