More pleasant observations

another view of the CA-native garden

Today was also an excellent day in the botanical garden; I was able to observe the small true bugs (mentioned in the previous post) again. Interestingly, some of the reddish nymphs appeared to "attack" conspecifics by chasing/pushing (I couldn't see the behaviors clearly) them away from seedpods, which seem to be a highly desirable food source.

The rest of my walk was rather uneventful, although I did see a single Strymon melinus adult performing nectar robbery on Sphaeralcea ambigua:

it is feeding from the side instead of the center

By the way, here is a bonus pic of Lithops pseudotruncatella groendrayensis in the desert greenhouse section; it has been on my wish list for quite some time due to its obligate non-clustering behavior (unfortunately I suspect that captive specimens are relentlessly boring though).

its lack of brown maculations is also pleasant

Finally, a decent bug hunt

Adult basks with large nymph (click pics for full size)

I have located a colony of Crophius (max size approx 5 millimeters, though it's larger than it sounds) in the local botanical garden's California natives section! Due to CA rainseason winters the sky has been wet for roughly three weeks with intermittent sun, and I was only able to photograph them today (a few days after discovery).

Here is a quick visual tour of the planted area:

and here is their hostplant

Sphaeralcea ambigua

flowers

Here are a few more pics of different adults and nymphs; the adult was surprisingly cooperative (though still restless) after I startled it into dropping off the leaf. After the initial drop it did not fly away in my hand and was reluctant to perform escape-dropping when photographed.

unlike the other one this adult has unicolored front wings

most nymphs had brownish red abdomens

but this one was redder and maybe a bit teneral