I spent a couple of hours in my backyard today, late in the afternoon. A friend was also there with me and we removed some weeds while chatting and enjoying the summer day. At one point I noticed a minuscule moving dot on the leaf of one of the Chenopodium album plants that have grown in that part of the yard, near the tangerine tree. I couldn't tell what that thing is with the naked eye, so I ran into the house to take the macro lens and the camera.
When I returned, the minuscule unidentified thing wasn't there anymore but I found it on the neighboring plant of the same kind. I mounted the lens, adjusted the settings on the camera, and less than a minute later I was looking at the small creature able to see every detail of its external anatomy.
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This is the Lauritrioza alacris, a hemipteran insect from the Triozidae family. The species from a group of four to seven (I'm not sure about the exact number because the Internet articles I found are fairly confusing in that regard) hemipteran families including the Triozidae are commonly known as jumping plant lice. In the following photograph ...
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... you can take a good look at the plant that provided the nice, uniformly green background for the portrait of the insect. In the upper left corner of the picture, you can see the lower branches of the small tangerine tree.
Lauritrioza alacris feeds and reproduces on another plant, the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis). You won't see those small trees in today's post because they are just outside the frame in every photograph, but the laurels were always nearby, believe me.
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I photographed more than one Lauritrioza alacris today, and one of them had a minuscule parasite attached to its abdomen. When I first saw it, with the naked eye and from a distance, I thought I found a different, more colorful insect. Only through the macro lens, the little red arachnid became clearly distinguishable. The parasite is a larval stage of a mite from the Erythraeidae family - can't tell you the exact species because quite a few very similar ones can be found in this area. In the larval part of their existence, they live attached to various insects and arachnids, and then in their adult life, the mites wander around as minuscule carnivores able to actively hunt.
I spent about half an hour getting these photographs, and then ...
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... a friend came and pulled the Chenopodium album plants out of the ground ...
... so the jumping plant lice flew to the nearby bay laurel tree where many of their kind were resting and crawling along the twigs and across the leaves. I'll probably revisit that corner of the yard in the next few days to photograph the Lauritrioza alacris on their host plant. I'm also hoping to find some other insects on the bay laurel trees. That future post could end up being considerably longer than this one.
AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
The following links will take you to the sites with more information about the protagonists of this post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenopodium_album
https://www.britishbugs.org.uk/homoptera/Psylloidea/Lauritrioza_alacris.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triozidae
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I know "garden lice" are very different from "human lice", but even so you have made me feel extremely itchy from your macro photography. I would not want to be that close to any type of lice !LOL
Joking aside, great shots bro! Amazing fine detail 👌
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When I read about lice I thought about those animals that give some children their hair , then I read and I realize that it has to do with plants , I mean , in some schools children infect others with nits , then nits They turn into lice, all in the hair, currently there are very effective products to eliminate them, but previously their mothers pulled them out of their hair by hand, can you imagine the work of the mothers? well thank goodness all this has changed
Yes 🙂 I had lice as a kid a few times. I mean, more or less the whole school in my hometown which was only a village back then had them. I remember that we kids were so fascinated when we scratched our heads to make them fall on the school bench in the classroom. It was like a competition to see who has more lice. 😂 I still have that memory so vivid in my mind.
Plants have lice? We learn something new every day!
Yes, it sounds like the plants have lice 😄but these are not closely related to human lice. If one starts to consider every insect that feeds by piercing the stems or leaves and sucking the sap and therefore behaves a lot like a louse on the human body really a louse, then yes, plants would be full of lice big and small.
I thought so ... but the thought was just wild ... I know about aphids, of course, but this was another level...
Yes 🙂
#hive #posh
Garden lice do look to me but I only see from the bright side that photography is very beautiful, shots are very precise and pokus on objects without blur are very beautiful
What a cute little animal, it looks extremely small, must have been difficult to focus and capture in the photos, great shots!
I just learned about plant lice. It's appearance is fine.
Wow, plant lice, I didn't even know that existed, but whether it plant one a human one, I don't think I want to be in the same space as them.
These are really great pictures
This is first time, I am seeing this kind of lice. Beautiful ofcourse. Wings are almost transparent but the veins look very colourful.
Nice shots man. You must have great time capturing them.
Yes 🙂 I had fun observing the minuscule insects through the macro lens.
Wow.. your zoom is incredible. If that is a mite on a lice, then that is just plain wild. Brilliant photos mate.
Yes, it's a minuscule larva of a mite. The insect is also very small, difficult to identify with the naked eye. You can see that there is something on the plant, but only through the magnifying lens, you can see the details.
Aww
You friend is actually helpful. That's a nice one
Beautiful pictures as usual!
@borjan Enjoy your summer days bro! Nice photography again.🪲
Thank you 🙂
When friends are together, the time does not seem to pass while talking in the same way, and people keep working together. This worm looks very beautiful.
such a unique animal sir. @borjan
Beautiful clicks of pretty creatures.