MACRO AND MORE ON THE FIRST DAY OF MAY

The first of May was a predominantly sunny day, but a bit of rain did fall around noon. Many people were outside, and many outdoor barbeques were spreading scents of all kinds of fine meat slowly roasting under the great, prevalently blue sky.
I started my quiet, solitary macro celebration only in the evening, less than an hour before the sun got ready to set.

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All the photographs in today's post were taken in Palera, the coastal area near the harbor of Liznjan. That place is about five or six kilometers from where I live.

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Here you can see the highlight of the day, an interesting planthopper I don't encounter very often.

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The name of the species is Asiraca clavicornis. It belongs to the Delphacidae family. The thick, peculiar antennae make this planthopper stand out from related species present in my area.

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The fern is growing on the edge of the field. It forms a narrow belt between the herbaceous plants and the shrubs.
The scientific name of this specific fern species is Pteridium aquilinum.

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Under the blackberry leaf in that area, very near the fern shown in the previous photograph, a young Neoscona adianta spider was eating some insect enveloped in silk.

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In this case, Neoscona adianta is the hunter, but ...

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... but the small spider can sometimes become prey.

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Here you can see a jumping spider with Neoscona adianta in its fangs.

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I came across this scene on the same blackberry shrub. The jumping spider was consuming the prey on the upper side of the leaves.

The scientific name of this species from the Salticidae family is Evarcha jucunda. This is a female. Males look considerably different.

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Here you can see the common vetch (Vicia sativa) plant climbing the shrubs on the edge of the field covered with a wide variety of herbaceous plants. In the following photograph ...

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... you can take a better, more up-close look at its lovely flowers.

A few meters further, on another, much smaller herbaceous plant, I photographed a small, young nymph of the Sepiana sepium bush cricket.

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Here you can see another portrait of the Pteridium aquilinum fern.

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These common poppies (Papaver rhoeas) were photographed in the central part of the field.
The predominant plant in this area is the Anthemis arvensis.

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Here you can see the interesting, colorful caterpillar I found on one of those Anthemis arvensis plants.

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This is the larval stage of a moth from the Noctuidae family.

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The scientific name of the species is Cucullia chamomillae.

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Its common name is a bit surprising for a moth. Cucullia chamomillae is commonly known as the chamomile shark.
Anthemis arvensis, on the other hand, is commonly known as the corn chamomile or scentless chamomile.
The chamomile shark shown in these photographs was enjoying the abundance of fresh food in the sea of chamomile.
In its larval stage, the Cucullia chamomillae feeds on various species of chamomile.

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Dry stems of the Capsella bursa-pastoris plants were sparsely scattered among the green, juicy Anthemis arvensis.

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The sinuous shapes of those dry stems resembled a caterpillar, so I assembled this set of photographs to put that vague similarity right before your eyes.

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Flower buds on a few Anthemis arvensis plants were starting to turn into flowers in those days.
In the above photograph, you can see a bush cricket nymph posing on the top of a semi-developed flower. The scientific name of the species is Decticus albifrons. Adults look considerably different.

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Here you can see a bunch of poppies lit by the warm light of the late afternoon.

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On another Anthemis arvensis, I photographed two small bugs from the Lygaeidae family.

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The Nysius graminicola were mating.

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These bugs feed on a wide variety of herbaceous plants present in the area.

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Here you can see the Malachius bipustulatus, a beetle from the Melyridae family resting on the Anthemis arvensis leaves. As adults, these beetles feed on nectar, pollen, and very small insects like aphids.
The larvae live under the bark, in the rotting wood, or in the ground among the roots of grasses, where they hunt various small insects and their larvae.

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This and the previous photograph were taken without the flash, after sunset, when I was almost ready to leave Palera and drive back home. The light was pretty low, so the exposure had to be relatively long. Overall, the beetle was calm enough for a sharp photograph, but its antennae were constantly moving, so you can see a bit of motion blur in that part of the picture. That small trace of movement enhances the photograph, in my opinion.

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Here you can see another bunch of beautiful poppies. These aren't the common poppies I showed earlier in the post. The scientific name of this species is Papaver apulum.

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On one of the long leaves of the Rumex crispus plant, I came across the crab spider that had recently finished molting. The spider was resting on the lower surface of the leaf, near its empty old exoskeleton.
If you take a good look at all the little details in the picture, you'll notice that one of its legs is pale, very different than the other seven limbs.
The name of the species is Xysticus cristatus. It belongs to the Thomisidae family. The following photograph shows the same scene, but ...

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... but a small fly has landed on the other side of the same leaf. That blurred little detail adds a bit of depth to the picture and makes it better, in my opinion.

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This last shot shows the Polyommatus icarus, a small butterfly from the Lycaenidae family, resting on the grass near the dusty road that leads through the fields and meadows of Palera.

AND THAT'S IT. THE POST ENDS HERE. AS ALWAYS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.

The following links will take you to the sites with more information about the protagonists of today's post. I found some stuff about them there.