Minor entowalk update

I have been quite busy lately, but I finally went on another entowalk in the public garden; the foliage is weedy and quite lush now, but the milkweed had only several(?) dozen unclustered Oncopeltus adults and an adult monarch.

Syrphids (mostly ubiquitous taxa like Allograpta obliqua and Toxomerus marginatus) and coccinellids are still not uncommon though; however, it seems a few Hippodamia have now been accompanying Cycloneda sanguinea.

3/4 minor news

Vanessa adult activity has resumed due to sunny weather, but only non-large aggregations (a handful per nectaring area) were visible. I was surprised to find that annabella were mixed in with the cardui:

cardui

annabella

Milkweed hemipterans were still sparsely distributed but I saw a single large cluster on a pod (perhaps the pod was unhealthy and the resulting loss of defense chems made it more palatable than the others?)

Also finally managed to photograph + identify one of the massive non-katydid hoppers:

Schistocerca nitens

Ento-walk large post!

2/25: Bland pics

The small Sphaeralcea hemipterans have not done anything too interesting, though I did see an adult and nymph excitedly running up and down the stems for some reason I couldn't determine. I was able to find few other interesting arthropods in the public garden despite seeing many freshly and heavily chewed leaves as well as large diurnal predators; any advice?

large diurnal predator

Interestingly, several nearby honeybees were displaying an intriguing behavior; they would happily pollinate Sphaeralcea flowers that were open, but would attempt to nectar-rob closed flowers and shove themselves inside of partially closed flowers. Even more interestingly, I later saw an entire foraging party apparently nectar-robbing a bushful of dead dried Salvia flowers. Befitting for a highly adaptable synanthrope, I guess.

hard-working but certainly not honest

Here are a few other random pics I took, by the way

Halictus tripartitus

Mecaphesa trying to ambush hover flies

2/26: Not all locusts have jaws

I was rather surprised to see hilariously large Vanessa cardui swarms in the European flowers section; it seems the recent few weeks of rain here have triggered a migration. The butterflies were evidently rather famished, too; they frantically stuffed their tongues into anything that had petals, including fancy-looking cultivars which even the honeybees refused to touch. I think I once read somewhere in a technical book that Vanessa spend 90-something percent of their time nectaring, because many flowers give meals sparingly to encourage pollination. Unfortunately, my phone refused to photograph the whole swarm, so here are a few individuals:

2/26 (cont.) and 2/27: Fun with the milkweed crew (and more)

I found a small party of milkweed hemipterans on a bunch of sickly-looking plants in the herbs section! Unfortunately, all hemipteran species had sparse populations despite plentiful seeds; perhaps only two or three adult Oncopeltus and a single adult Lygaeus were around, with a few large nymphs present. A few Aphis nerii clusters were also around but they were busy getting themselves killed.

Cycloneda sanguinea

(can you find the aphid?)

The Tagetes lemmonii bush nearby was also quite biodiverse (its passionfruity scent was excellent too);

yellowish inchworms were abundant

Erynnis tristis, far handsomer than the overdressed Vanessa

these wingwiggling flies were common too; learning their sign language might be interesting

3/7: A few more bland but interesting pics

I found my first iridoviral blue pillbug today! It wasn't very blue, though. My phone camera made it look more vibrant that it actually was; here is a heavily edited pic showing realistic colors.

Also, I have finally managed to get a non-blurry pic of this large bumblebee; although it visits several unrelated species of flower, it appears to be quite selective about its dining options (I have never seen it outside the public garden) and is extremely wary + restless.

Bombus melanopygus

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