THE REMARKABLE BEAUTY OF AN ORDINARY EVENING IN APRIL

Last evening, I spent a bit less than an hour in the good company of wild flowers and tiny invertebrates that live in an area covered with tall grass and various herbaceous vegetation. It's a place called Palera, situated a couple of kilometers from the village of Liznjan, which means I had to drive about five or six kilometers to get there.

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I took only a few shots in natural light, becouse once the sun is behind the horizon, it gets dark pretty fast. Fortunately, the small, built-in flash of my camera allowed me to explore small details until it was too dark to see an insect or spider without a flashlight.

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It all started with poppies (Papaver rhoeas), the showiest flowers in the field. In the following photograph, taken through the macro lens...

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... you can see a small Tettigonia viridissima nymph posing on the stem of the poppy. Tettigonia viridissima is a bush cricket, and one of the biggest insects in the area - as an adult; the young nymphs, like the one shown here, are very small.

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Here you can see two flowers growing very close to each other.

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These two poppies keep a respectful distance. They look a bit like people talking about the weather or something. By the way, the weather was really nice yesterday, a typical springtime bliss.

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From a certain distance and angle, the lovely red flowers looked like some fairy tale creatures peeking from the sea of green.

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The night was considerably closer when I photographed these white flowers ...

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... of the white campion (Silene latifolia).

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When I came closer to the plant, I noticed a tiny insect in the center of one of those elegant flowers that looked like white little stars hidden in the juicy, tall grass. It was time to mount the macro lens again.

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Megabruchidius dorsalis, a small beetle from the Bruchinae subfamily in the large and varied Chrysomelidae family, was feeding on something that the flower had to offer. Since I don't know much about this invasive species that came from East Asia, I can't tell you what the beetle was interested in. Pollen? Nectar? The tissue of the juicy petal? Who knows - I, most certainly don't.

Here you can see a slightly different portrait of another Silene latifolia flower.

This Coreus marginatus, a bug from the Coreidae family, was photographed on the same plant.

In this shot, the bug is posing near the flower bud. For the following portrait ...

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... I came a bit closer to the insect.

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The plant shown in the center of this photograph is Vicia sativa, commonly known as the common vetch.

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Here you can take a better, more up-close look at the lovely Vicia sativa flowers.

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Not far from the vetch, I spotted a spider. It was a relatively big spider.

This is the Cheiracanthium erraticum ...

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... a species from the Cheiracanthiidae family. The spider shown in this and the previous two photographs is a male.

A bit later and only about five or six meters further, I came across a small moth. This is Grapholita lunulana, a species from the Tortricidae family. The "lunula" in the second part of its scientific name means "little moon" in Latin. Lunula was also a crescent-shaped ornament from those ancient times, an ornament worn as a necklace. In the above photograph, the moth's wings are folded in a way that hides the central part of the crescent moon.

Here you can take a better look at the lovely golden lunula of the Grapholita lunulana, a moth with the crescent moon on its back.

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In this third photograph, you can finally see the moth's face. It took me quite a bit of time and maneuvering to get this portrait becouse the small details of the plant on which Grapholita lunulana was resting were always in the way of a good, clear shot.

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The scientific name of this plant is Medicago polymorpha. It is commonly known as the toothed bur clover. It is also called the California burclover, and it can be found in many parts of the world, but it's native to the Mediterranean basin.

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To get a better look at its tiny yellow flowers ...

... I had to use the macro lens once again.

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As the night was slowly falling, the snails, sealed in their shells during the warm, sunny day, were starting to get active.

The scientific name of this small species from the Hygromiidae family is Monacha cartusiana.

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Sometimes, while slowly moving around, snails can be seen for a moment in some strange, photogenic poses. In the above photograph, the upside-down shell looks a bit like a spiral bag or a basket in which the mollusk is resting like a bird in a nest.

The night was almost there when I took this last photograph. It was time for me to go home. The post ends here.

AS ALWAYS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.