BUGS & BERRIES

Today, I spent some time in the shady woods between Vodnjan and Svetvinchenat, two small towns in the inland area about 30 kilometers from Medulin, the coastal town in which I live.

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I encountered some interesting plants and insects there.

This is a post about them. Well, mostly.

I also ate some delicious wild fruits. So this is a post about that unexpected free breakfast too.

Here you can see the lovely blue flowers ...

... of the wild chicory (Cichorium intybus).

After a bit of walking and sniffing around in search of something to photograph, I came across these little fruits of the Lonicera implexa, a plant commonly known as the evergreen honeysuckle.

The honeysuckle has grown around some relatively tall shrubs. On the leaf of one of those shrubs, I photographed this Oxyopes lineatus lynx spider, and then ...

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... I noticed a small green shield bug ...

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... that was crawling around the colorful honeysuckle berries.

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The fruits were very visible, but the insect was well camouflaged on the green surface.

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This is the 4th instar nymph of the Palomena prasina shield bug.

The word instar means the developmental stage of an arthropod in between two molts. 4th instar here means that the juvenile shield bug has changed its exoskeleton four times while growing, and each molt has brought some changes to the nymph's appearance.

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The combination of colors in this scene was very attractive and photogenic, so I took plenty of photographs before continuing my rambling around the forest.

After some more walking ...

... I came across another kind of fruit. Before continuing with text and photographs, I would like to show you a video made from the pieces of footage that I recorded today in the woods. Have a good viewing 😊.

▶️ Watch on 3Speak

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A video diary made of the footage that I recorded today in the woods. The video is ment to be a part of the longer and more elaborate post on HIVE. It looks much better in that context than as a standalone thing.
The music in the video is some beautiful free stuff that I found on Pixabay.

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

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▶️ 3Speak

These are the wild strawberries.

Fragaria vesca is the name of the fruit. Some berries were intensely red ...

... but most of them were less colorful. No matter the colors, all fruits were ripe and delicious.

These woodland strawberries are small but strongly flavored. Their aroma is more intense and distinctive than the aroma of the big cultivated strawberries. First I photographed the fruits ...

... and then, I had a great breakfast in the refreshing shade under the trees. Although the shade was great as a refuge from the strong sun, the light was pretty low, so I had to use the flash in most of the shots. The strawberries looked much better in the subdued ambient light, so I mounted the camera on a small platform made of fallen branches ...

... and took two photographs that required a longer exposure, definitively too long for the handheld camera.

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After photographing and eating enough, I decided to walk back to the car.

Very soon, not far from the place where the wild strawberries grow, I stopped to photograph the Securigera varia plant. A small nymph of the Phaneroptera nana bushcricket was crawling across the cluster of small but beautiful flowers.

In this photograph, the young cricket is continuing along the stem of the plant.

When the bushcricket jumped on the neighboring vegetation and disappeared among the foliage, I continued my walk to the car ...

... but very soon, I had to stop again. Because I encountered another interesting scene.

Empididae flies were mating. The male was hanging on the leaf of some grass. With its forelegs, the insect was holding the plant, and the remaining two pairs of legs were used to hold the female. Meanwhile, the female was feeding on some minuscule fly that the male caught and brought as a nuptial gift. I can't tell you the exact species of these predatory flies, but the family is definitively Empididae.

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Before reaching the car ...

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... I passed by the same honeysuckle plant that started this post.

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The young shield bug was feeding on the juicy little fruits.

AND THAT'S IT. SOON I WAS DRIVING BACK HOME TO ORGANIZE THE PHOTOGRAPHS, EDIT THE VIDEO MATERIAL, AND PREPARE THIS POST. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, ALL THAT PHOTO & VIDEO STUFF, IS MY WORK - THE END.