I was walking across the meadows, surrounded by colorful stuff, in an area near the sea, about a hundred meters from the coastal rocks and about ten kilometers from my house ...
... this glittering jewel beetle (Buprestidae family) ...
... the Anthaxia suzannae ...
... was feeding on the Ranunculus bulbosus flower. As you can see on these shots they use as food all that the flower can offer. They eat pollen, nectar and chew the petals.
The larvae of this species feed and develop inside the wood of a few wild and cultivated shrubs and trees from the Rosaceae family. Larvae bore under the bark of weakened or already dead plants.
Some meters further, on another group of yellow flowers of the same kind ...
... I found a different kind of glittering beetle ...
... on these shots you can see the Psilothrix viridicoerulea beetles from the family Melyridae, commonly known as soft-winged flower beetles ...
... their glitter can vary from green to blue ...
... this species eats only the pollen without damaging the rest of the flower ... in its adult phase ...
The larvae initially feed on dead insects, then become plant eaters that bore longitudinal galleries in the stems of some annual weeds like fennel and thistle.
These shiny beetles appear in big numbers on the meadows in this area, and are a nice glittering decoration on already decorative flowers.
While the Psilothrix viridicoerulea is pronounced and very visible on the yellow background, the hunters are often well camouflaged ... on this enlargeable photograph you can see a small, juvenile Thomisus onustus spider, a yellow version of this species that comes in quite a few different colors.
A small insect that looked like some kind of wasp landed on another Ranunculus bulbosus flower, stayed there for a moment, just the time to take this shot ...
... and then flew to some nearby plant ...
... before disappearing from sight somewhere above the meadow. I don't know what species is this ... but I'm convinced that it's some kind of wasp.
This pale, almost completely white Thomisus onustus crab spider, was hiding among the tiny flowers on the top of the Euphorbia Cyparissias plant.
A bit later, the spider got annoyed by me and my camera and hid underneath the cluster of small leaves and flowers.
On the neighboring plant of the same kind ...
... I found this Liolobus walkeri bug.
About a hundred meters further, on the Euphorbia helioscopia plant ...
... I took a few shots of the Oxyopes heterophthalmus spider ...
... from the Oxyopidae family, commonly known as Lynx spiders. These spiders hunt a bit like cats, they wait in ambush and jump on the prey.
There is always plenty of action on the Euphorbia helioscopia plants.
This wasp mimicking fly, the Chrysotoxum intermedium ...
... has landed to get a dose of nectar.
This crab spider (Thomisidae), I don't know the exact species, but I'm absolutely sure that is from the genus Xysticus, commonly known as ground crab spiders ...
... has caught some wild, solitary bee.
After photographing this Mediterranean spotted chafer (Oxythyrea funesta) on the nearby Lamium purpureum plant ...
... I continued walking through taller grass ... on the ear of the Hordeum murinum I photographed this colorful shield bug, the Carpocoris purpureipennis ...
... on the long leaf of the same plant I saw some pretty big aphid, I don't know the exact species ...
... and a bit further, on another blade of the same kind of grass, I found this pretty extravagant little creature ... a planthopper nymph ...
... this is the young, wingless version of the Issus coleoptratus planthopper.
I found this small fly from the Sepsidae family ... I don't know the exact species, but the family is right ...
... on the long leaf of another grass ...
... the wild oat (Avena fatua).
This vividly colored Thomisus onustus spider was photographed on the long and large leaf of the Rumex crispus plant ...
... the Pisaura mirabilis spider ...
... was resting among the leaves of some clover plants ...
... and this minuscule whitefly, which is not a fly but a Hemipteran insect from the Aleyrodidae family, was hidden deep in the small, humid jungle at the base of the tall grass.
Then I encountered the colorful Eurydema ornata shield bug ...
... and the slightly less colorful Dolycoris baccarum.
This pretty big fly ...
... the Empis tessellata, was resting on some large leaf at the edge of the meadow, near the dense growth of evergreen oaks and blackberry shrubs ... and now ...
... with this minuscule, very young Neoscona adianta spider ...
... is time to end this post ... because after this shot, I went home ... to organize the photographs and write the post you just saw ... as always in these posts on HIVE, the photographs are my work ... and as always in the NEWS FROM THE MEADOWS series, they were all taken today.