NEWS FROM THE MEADOWS 03.08.2020

With warmer days, the coastal meadows here in my area, have definitely turned from green to a much warmer palette, filled with earthy colors.
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The grass is tall and dry ...
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There is less insect activity during the hot daytime ...
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... but you can still find interesting creatures, hidden in this summer version of the habitat ... like this Bacillus rossius stick insect, ad example ...
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... or the elegant Bush - cricket Tylopsis lilifolia. Both of these species have their green versions too, more suitable for the juicy, green meadows in the inland of this peninsula.
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But that doesn't mean that all the crickets here are brown - here you can see a green one of the same species.
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Here is another generic shot of the meadow, with some Common wild oat (Avena fatua) grass standing tall in the foreground ... and on the following photograph ...
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... another slender, grass - like insect, the Acrida ungarica grasshopper.
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The word grass usually evokes images of textures made of the same looking straws, some sort of natural carpet, a lawn that becomes a landscape, but grass on the wild meadows comes in many species ... you can see many beautiful, very elegant shapes, especially now that the seeds are formed and mature.
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I don't know the name of this feather - like thing ...
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... but it's a joy to watch it sway on the gentle summer breeze.
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On the following photograph ...
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... you can see some kind of light attached to the straw.
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It’s a small caterpillar. It was photographed early in the morning, with the warm, gentle light coming from the opposite direction, making it look like some green neon, on that first picture.
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Summer mornings can look pretty spectacular here in the tall grass.
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Here is a small blue butterfly, I don't know the exact species, resting on the ear of grass.
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These Colias croceus butterflies are mating on the Spiranthes spiralis plant (an orchid species), dipped in yellow light.
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A Damselfly is resting on some dry plant, also early in the morning ... while on the following few photographs ...
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... taken later in the day ...
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... the much larger Dragonflies, are watching the meadows from the tops of the grass.
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Here is another wider view at the setting ... and then ...
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... another lovely butterfly, the Marbled white (Melanargia galathea)
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Sheep and goats are passing regularly through this landscape ...
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... leaving excrement behind ... so the Dung beetles have always something to roll.
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The small beetle on this photograph is the very common and widespread Lagria hirta, these beetles feed on nectar and pollen.
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The Camptopus lateralis bugs are very numerous these days.
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Here you can see a pair mating.
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This is the Carpocoris purpureipennis, a shield bug species.
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Here you can see the Carpocoris purpureipennis nymph ... and on the following photograph ...
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... is another plant that grows among the various grasses ... I don't know the name of the species.
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Back to the insects, here you can see one of the very common grasshoppers in this area, I don't know the exact species, many similar looking grasshoppers are jumping around these meadows, I found quite a few species in my Internet search that could match the insect on this picture, so I'm pretty confused and can't tell you the exact name.
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This is the small Oecanthus pellucens cricket, a tree cricket species.
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These Robber flies are mating in the late afternoon ...
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... and so are these diurnal, Nine-spotted moths (Amata phegea). And now ...
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... with this empty exoskeleton that once was a Cicada nymph, adapted for underground life, photographed when the sun was almost down ...
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... and the last look at the meadow in the evening ... is time to end this report.
As always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work.



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11 comments
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(Edited)

Amazing insect end Baligar rar insct nice vanderful post :-)

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I love these ethereal images with some strange creatures that you manage to capture :)

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You capture their faces--I think of @whatisnew. She loves the faces. Hasn't posted in a while. Hope she is well.
These photos are brilliant, of course.

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I hope too, that is ok and that will be back soon in Insect pub... I miss some other people too from my early days on Steemit ... especially @deirdyweirdy and @goat-girlz, hope they will be active again one day ... relatively soon

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Unbelievable, from less to more!! I missed your work, thanks for coming back to delight our eyes.

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