Yesterday, I drove to the area called Marlera, a couple of kilometers from the village of Liznjan, and five or six kilometers from where I live, and I did it in the morning, for a change. Recently, I have posted mostly about what I come across in the evening. Marlera isn't far from Palera, the place I usually post about these days. Marlera and Palera are two sides of a relatively large peninsula covered with cultivated fields and wild meadows. The sea is never too far when you are in Marlera or Palera, and if you are searching for small invertebrates and interesting plants to observe through a macro lens, you'll never end up disappointed.
You can explore a few diverse habitats in Marlra. Meadows. Pine groves. Shrub-covered areas. There is even a stone quarry that resembles a little desert or a desert-themed adventure park.
Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours in the tall grass along the dusty road that leads toward the stone quarry and then further to the sea.
So, what did I find in that tall grass? Was it worth the time and effort? Let's see.
This is the first insect I came across, a moth from the Elachistidae family. I took the above photograph a minute or two after getting out of the car. The name of the species is Elachista argentella. The moth was resting on the long leaf of grass situated more or less in the middle of the long stem.
A few minutes later, and a few meters further, I noticed a jumping spider on the ear of the tall Hordeum bulbosum grass.
The spider was calm, it didn't seem bothered by my presence ...
... so I seized the opportunity to get quite a few good shots of the jumping spider in various poses.
The scientific name of the species is Phlegra fasciata. The family is Salticidae, of course. Jumping spiders have great vision and depth perception that helps them actively pursue their prey and make long, precise, targeted jumps.
Here you can see a juvenile Neoscona adianta, a spider from the Araneidae family, with a completely different lifestyle. These orb weavers hang on their webs, waiting for the prey to get glued and entangled in the sticky silk.
I photographed three Elachista argentella moths that morning.
This one was resting on the ear at the top of the grass. The tiny, gracile Elachista argentella is very photogenic. Especially in the uniformly green environment.
The larvae of this species feed on a wide variety of grasses. They make tiny tunnels in the leaves while eating the plant tissue.
There isn't much color you can see while walking among the tall stems that reach your chin or shoulders. The only flowers here are small and inconspicuous, but beautiful in their unique, modest way.
These are the Hordeum bulbosum flowers that grow on the ear of the grass. They come in a nice variety of pale colors. Pink. Red. Magenta. Violet.
In some cases, the flowers are predominantly yellow. Just like the previous one, this photograph was taken through the macro lens. If you take the time to explore all the little details, you'll probably notice two tiny aphids in the center of the picture. Those are the Schizaphis graminum aphids.
Hordeum bulbosum is a hermaphrodite species. Its flowers have male and female parts, and rely on the wind for pollination. When the wind moves these little tubes, the pollen flies all around the meadow, and if the currents are favorable, it can get pretty far.
Pisaura mirabilis, a spider from the Pisauridae family, often waits in ambush for the prey to come close enough to be reached with a short, very fast sprint.
This spider doesn't blend in with its environment through its color, but rather assumes a pose that makes it look like a brown, dry fragment of grass.
At some point, while rambling through the grass, I came across a Neoscona adianta spider that wasn't resting on its web, as usual. This one was posing on the long, narrow Hordeum bulbosum leaf for a change. The photograph on the left was taken with the flash, the one on the right, without it.
In the following shot ...
... you can take a break from the macro view and see a bit of the scenery. The dark trees on the edges of the frame are cypresses. On one of those ...
... I saw a beautiful lizard climbing and running around the trunk and lower branches like a squirrel. This is the Podarcis siculus, a fast and agile lizard from the Lacertidae family.
This hairy plant was photographed in the shade under the cypress tree. The name of the species is Pallenis spinosa.
This is yet another Elachista argentella moth, the third and the last one I photographed yesterday.
In this and the previous photograph, the scales on the moth's wings are glittering in the sun.
In this shot, the same moth was lit from a slightly different angle. The glitter has gone, but the texture created by the scales is nicely visible here.
Spiders from the Oxyopidae family are commonly known as lynx spiders. This photograph shows a lynx spider with its prey. The scientific name of the species is Oxyopes heterophthalmus. The prey is a harvester ant.
These spiders are ambush predators that jump upon their prey in a very feline-like manner. That's why they are called lynx spiders.
This small fly belongs to the Opomyzidae family.
The name of the species is Geomyza tripunctata.
In their larval stage, all Opomyzidae feed on various wild grasses and cultivated cereals. At some point, while I was observing the Geomyza tripunctata through the macro lens ...
... a tiny droplet appeared in its mouth. There isn't a definitive answer that explains this behavior. Some theories say that this "bubble blowing" is connected with a secondary digestion, and others that it's a way for the fly to cool down by making the liquid evaporate.
These two shots, one of which was taken with the flash and the other without it, show the Eurygaster testudinaria, a bug from the Scutelleridae family.
Nymphs and adults of this species feed on various grasses.
And that's all I prepared for today. The post ends here. As always on Hive, the photographs are my work - THE END.
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.
https://www.naturespot.org/species/elachista-argentella
https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:405169-1
https://uk.inaturalist.org/taxa/153536-Phlegra-fasciata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoscona_adianta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizaphis_graminum
https://www.naturespot.org/species/nursery-web-spider
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_wall_lizard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallenis_spinosa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyopes_heterophthalmus
https://www.naturespot.org/species/geomyza-tripunctata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurygaster_testudinaria