On the 23rd of June 2022, I spent a couple of hours on one of the hills around the village called Sovinjak and in the nearby valley of the river Mirna.
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In this post, I'll show you some small arthropods and a bit of the scenery I photographed on that occasion.
Here you can see the male of the Leptophyes boscii bushcricket. This bushcricket that can't be found in the southern, coastal part of Istra where I live, was photographed in the valley, down by the river.
In this photograph, I came closer to the insects.
Here you can see a female of the same species.
The semi-translucent, jelly-like thing on its abdomen is called spermatophylax. It was produced by the male and given to the female before mating. Spermatophylax functions as a potent nutritive supplement.
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In the last photograph of this tryptich, you can see the female eating the nuptial gift.
Here you can take a look at the scenery by the river.
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These three Leptophyes boscii, two females and a male, were posing together ...
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... on one of the large lower leaves of the Heracleum sphondylium plant.
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I took quite a few photographs while observing this scene. In the following one ...
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... a female is eating the spermatophylax.
I came a bit closer in order to get this photograph. The bushcrickets soon jumped away so here you can take one last look at the scene.
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Here you can see the scenery on the hill, a couple of kilometers from the valley.
This is the country lane that leads to Sovinjak. I haven't visited the village on that occasion in June of 2022 but the following link can take you there.
https://ecency.com/hive-155530/@borjan/sovinjak
I mean, the link can show you the village through one of my older posts.
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Here you can see the lavender that grew by the side of the road, not far from where I left my car.
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Iphiclides podalirius butterflies were flying around ...
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... and feeding on the flowers.
This Micropodisma salamandra grasshopper was photographed down in the valley. You can see a female in this photograph.
This is the male.
Not far from there, one of these grasshoppers was hanging upside down.
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When I came closer ...
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... I saw that the grasshopper was caught by a crab spider.
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This is the Runcinia grammica, a spider from the Thomisidae family.
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A bit later, while walking very close to the river ...
... I came across a pretty large butterfly that was resting on the Centaurea alba plant.
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When it comes to the name of the species, this is the Brintesia circe, a butterfly from the Satyrinae family.
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Ten or twenty meters further along the river, I found another interesting spider.
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I was able to come very close and get this portrait.
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The name of the species is Dolomedes plantarius. The family is Pisauridae.
Dolomedes plantarius is commonly known as the great raft spider. This is a semi-aquatic spider that hunts on the surface of the water.
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In this set of four photographs, you can see a nymph of some shield bug. I wasn't able to identify the species. The family is Pentatomidae, of course.
Here you can take another look at the hills around Sovinjak. The following photograph ...
... was also taken there, in the hills.
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Here you can see a small tree that stood out, not only from the other trees in the area but also from all of the surrounding vegetation.
I found a nice variety of bushcrickets down in the valley. This is the Pholidoptera griseoaptera bushcricket.
Here you can see the Pholidoptera littoralis bushcricket.
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At one point, I came across a well-developed, almost adult Leptophyes boscii nymph ...
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... that has just finished molting.
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This nymph will become an adult female soon.
After molting the bushcrickets eat their old exoskeleton.
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It's too nutritious to let it go to waste.
Here you can take a look at the tiny fruits of the Carex tomentosa sedge and in the following photograph ...
... you can see a bushcricket and a grasshopper posing on the same leaf.
The bushcricket is Leptophyes boscii and the grasshopper is Micropodisma salamandra, of course.
Here you can take another look at the river.
This leafhopper ...
... was photographed on the leaf of one of the plants that grow very close to the water. Can't tell you the name of this small insect from the Cicadellidae family.
This nymph of the Carpocoris purpureipennis shield bug was photographed nearby.
You can see another shot from the hills here.
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In this set of four photographs, you can see more of that scenery.
I photographed a very small village while exploring one of the hills in that area.
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Can't tell you the name of this place.
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This is another spider from the valley. I mean, it was photographed there. Near the river. It's a jumping spider. The family is Salticidae. That's all I know. Can't tell you the name of the species. The spider here is presented through a series of horizontal shots. It kinda looked better that way. In the following, vertical shot ...
... you can see the original format before it was rotated in photoshop.
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Here you can see yet another Leptophyes boscii bushcricket on the Heracleum sphondylium plant. In the following photograph ...
... you can take a better, more up-close look at the same insect.
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While standing on the small bridge above the river, I photographed the carcass of the Austropotamobius pallipes, a freshwater crab species.
Soon I walked to the car and drove back home so this post must end here.
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.inaturalist.org/taxa/510381-Leptophyes-boscii
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarce_swallowtail
http://www.pyrgus.de/Micropodisma_salamandra_en.html
https://uk.inaturalist.org/taxa/318818-Runcinia-grammica
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brintesia
https://srs.britishspiders.org.uk/portal.php/p/Summary/s/Dolomedes+plantarius
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/55359-Pholidoptera-griseoaptera
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/464097-Pholidoptera-littoralis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carex_tomentosa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpocoris_purpureipennis
AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
