The 27th of September was a nice, warm, and mostly sunny day with just a bit of rain that fell late in the morning. I watched the rain through my window while working on the photographs to use in future posts, that were future back then but are probably already published now, and then, in the early afternoon, I went walking around the area between the village of Liznjan and the sea, four or five kilometers from where I live.
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In today's post, you'll see the cows, flowers, and insects that I encountered and photographed on that occasion.
Here you can see a small moth ...
... that was resting on one of the branches ...
... of the Odontites luteus plant.
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These three shots were taken through the macro lens so you can now take a better look at the yellow flowers. Especially if you enlarge the picture by clicking on it.
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When it comes to the moth, I can't tell you the name of the species, but I'm pretty sure that the family is Tortricidae.
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About a hundred or two hundred meters from there ...
...the cows were grazing in line.
When I left the Odontites luteus plant, my attention got caught by a plant that I wasn't able to identify. It looks a bit like something from the genus Silene in the Caryophyllaceae family, but I haven't found a species that matches this photograph.
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Some lovely ladybugs were hanging on that fairly mysterious plant ...
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... and I spent some time following their everyday activities through the macro lens.
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Most of these photographs were taken with the flash of my camera on because it was easier that way to freeze the movement of the insect and show all the details of its anatomy, but here you can also see one shot that shows the scene in ambient light because that subtle natural light works much better for the aesthetics and atmosphere.
While the ladybeetles were chewing the juicy parts of the plant in front of my macro lens ...
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... the cows were grazing in the distance.
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A vegetarian ladybug is a fairly rare encounter because most beetles from the Coccinellidae are predators. Some of them occasionally supplement their carnivorous diet with pollen. Some species feed on mold-related fungi called mildew that form a powder-like growth on the surfaces of leaves. But very few Coccinellidae feed on the plant tissue, and all of them belong to the Epilachninae subfamily. So this is definitively an Epilachninae ladybug, but I'm not sure about the exact species.
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It looks a lot like the Henosepilachna argus but the size and the number of dots don't match what I found in the photographs present on the Internet. Maybe, like in quite a few other Coccinellidae, the size and number of the dots can vary. Or probably, this isn't the Henosepilachna argus but some other related vegetarian species.
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When I left the ladybugs and their host plant ...
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... the cows started walking towards me ...
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... so I was able to get some lovely portraits.
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The cows stopped in the middle of the meadow. They continued grazing there ...
... and I prepared the macro lens ...
... to explore and photograph these small flowers ...
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... of the Petrorhagia saxifraga plant.
Meanwhile, not all the cows were busy feeding ...
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... some of them were watching me.
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This bull looked slightly menacing.
The weather was mostly sunny, but from time to time the moving clouds were changing the intensity of sunlight for short periods. It was sunny when I took the above photograph, and then, a moment later ...
... a distant cloud brought a slight change to the scene.
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When I got out of the macro view, I noticed that the cows are moving again.
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Soon they were pretty close to me.
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I took this group portrait and then ...
... I heard some rustling in the vegetation not far from my feet. It was a lizard. The Podarcis siculus. A lizard from the Lacertidae family. In the intricate herbaceous vegetation, the small reptile wasn't visible, but then the lizard climbed a small pile of gardening & construction waste that an unknown kind soul has left by the side of the road, and I got a chance to take this fairly good photograph.
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The cows were still there, of course, so I took another cow-themed photograph.
A bit later, in the field across the road ...
... I saw a herd of goats.
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And that's it. I showed you all I photographed back then on the 27th of September 2022.
The following links will take you to the sites with more information about some of the plants and insects that you saw in the post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odontites_luteus
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47155-Tortricidae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilachninae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henosepilachna_argus
https://www.plantea.com.hr/stjenoviti-kamenicak/
AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
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Lovely pìcs @borjan friend... Thanks a lot for sharing with us your way to see the life in teh Liznjan's surrounders!... Nice work!
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PD: I like a lot the cows,flowers, goats, insects... But the lovely Lizard I like the most!!!... Awesome nice reptile, very well recorded!... ;)
Thank you. 🙂 Glad you like the post.
Such a beautiful photographs @borjan
The cows did want to show off and posed for you well. The Ladybugs are just cute.
Beautiful flowers and macros of them.
And than to find the lizard. Perfect. Great catch.
Have a wonderful day today 👋🏻😊☀️
Thanks. 😃 Have a great Thursday.
You are welcome 👋🏻 Thank you kindly!
Ooo cow content. Nice!
Those ladybugs hanging on the plant almost look like berries. Wouldn't be pleasant to eat that berry though lol
😃 Bovine Thursday.
Yes, most (maybe all) ladybugs have an unpleasantly tasting/smelling hemolymph ( the circulating fluid that has a function of blood in insects) that they use as a defense from some predators. I think 😃that it could ruin a lovely, well-thought-out insect recipe.
Interesting.
And yes I agree haha
Great shots as always buddy. I like that moth first shot. You would think it is just a leaf that is part of that tree😊
🙂 Yes, some insects have fantastic shapes and colors.
Yep. Nature is amazing.
Well, as you say, September 27 has already passed and now we have your tour and the photos, I really liked the lizard and what you say, a kind soul left that like that to help the lizard or perhaps another animal, there are still good people in this world less bad
Really beautiful congratulations, nice post 👏👏👏
Thank you. 🙂
I hope you weren't bitten by the cow😆✌✌ the prairies are really beautiful in europe, the animals are carefree and there are lots of flowers and insects👍👍👍
🙂
Its a wonderful journey and we can see if you very love nature. Btw, hoy can you are very close to the lizard ? Because I think very hard to close to moving animals like that ??
These lizards sometimes come close to people when people are quiet and don't do much noise or sudden movements.
Agree with you. Dont do much noise or sudden move. But here I dont find a lizard, but nice to try your suggestion to another object like bird and butterfly. Thank you sir. Blessing
Cows and flowers are united in one field.
Your pictures are very entertaining.
Great pics bro😂
The bull was warning you
Happy cows :)
😃
Congratulations my friend, you captured the setting very well. That you went back again and again to the cows grazing adds to the bucolic feel of your publication. Great job.
Great eye for the details my friend!! the ladybug photo is really pretty
Thank you. 🙂 Glad you like the post.
Great shot, your pictures are very great and I love them so much..Great work man