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Life on a Field Scabious


Life on a Field Scabious
Photo Information
Copyright: Gert Ellstrom (ellis49) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3434 W: 331 N: 505] (2254)
Genre: Animals
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2014-07-02
Categories: Insects
Camera: Nikon D7100, Sigma 150mm f/2.8 APO MACRO EX DG OS
Exposure: f/16, 1/250 seconds
More Photo Info: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2015-07-02 5:50
Viewed: 2783
Points: 16
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
hank you for your kind words and nice comments on my previous post.
This is what life can on a Field Scabious, a crab spider with a catch,I think it's robber fly and the bigger Trichius fasciatus.

Some info from Wikipedia.

Field Scabious
It is a perennial plant that grows between 25 and 100 cm. It prefers grassy places and dry soils, avoiding heavy soils, and flowers between July and September.
The flowered head is flatter than similar species Devils bit scabious and Small Scabious. There are 4 stamens in each flower, and 1 notched long stigma.
The fruit is nut like, cylindrical and hairy, 5–6 mm in size.
It has a tap root. The stem has long stiff hairs angled downwards. There are no stipules.

The leaves form a basal rosette, are paired on the stem, the lowest typically 300 mm long, spear shaped, whereas the upper are smaller.

It is occasionally used by the Marsh Fritillary as a foodplant instead of its usual foodplant of Devils Bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis).
It is also the foodplant of the Narrow-bordered Bee Hawk-moth Hemaris tityus.

Trichius fasciatus,
These beetles are about 10 millimeters long. Head and pronotum are black, while the elytra are yellowish,
crossed by a few black bands. The first black band reaches the scutellum.
The sides of the chest and the back of the abdomen are covered with a white pubescence,
hence the popular name "bee beetle" for Trichius species.
Adults can be encountered from May through July feeding on petals of a variety of flowers.

Crabspider
Misumena vatia is a species of crab spider with holarctic distribution.
In North America, where it is the largest and best-known flower spider,
it is called the goldenrod crab spider or flower (crab) spider,
because it is commonly found hunting in goldenrod sprays in the autumn.
These spiders may be yellow or white, depending on the flower in which they are hunting.
Especially younger females, which may hunt on a variety of flowers such as daisies and sunflowers,
may change color "at will". Older females require large amounts of relatively large prey to produce the best possible clutch of eggs.
They are therefore, in North America, most commonly found in goldenrod (Solidago sp.),
a bright yellow flower which attracts large numbers of insects, especially in autumn.
It is often very hard even for a searching human to recognize one of these spiders on a yellow flower.
These spiders are sometimes called banana spiders because of their striking yellow colo

I Hope you like the life on the Field Scabious. :-)
Silvio2006, Hotelcalifornia, CeltickRanger, peter_stoeckl has marked this note useful
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Critiques [Translate]

Ciao Gert, great macro with a lot of life and death on beautiful flower, superb sjarpness, splendid light, fine details and wonderful natural colors, very well done, my friend, ciao Silvio

  • Great 
  • siggi Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 3097 W: 109 N: 12399] (52850)
  • [2015-07-02 6:58]

Hello Gert
A truly beautiful shot and so nice to catch beetles on one Flower and a little Spider with prey too, the POV and composition are excellent, nice sharp deatil on the beetle/Spider and the Flower, the colours are just lovely with a nice blurred BG.
Regards Sigi

  • Great 
  • lousat Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 6595 W: 89 N: 15659] (65489)
  • [2015-07-02 7:37]

H Gert,great capture from the top,there is a lot of specie on this flower..ehehe....spectacular quality of details everywhere and interesting note too about all the species,i like it! Have a nice evening and thanks,Luciano

  • Great 
  • PeterZ Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 5137 W: 166 N: 13121] (49139)
  • [2015-07-02 7:39]

Hello Gert,
The longer you look, the more you see. That makes this macro very interesting. Excellent sharpness in beautiful natural colours.
Regards,
Peter

Hello Gert,

Beautiful picture of this natural phenomenon. In one place three different species! You were lucky. Natural color as well as very good details. I like such OOF BG, which helps to concentrate on subject easily.
Thanks for sharing with informative NOTE,
Regards,
Srikumar

Hello Gert

WOW ! 3 different insect species in the same photo over the same flower,
you was at the best place the best time to witness this scenery of
dead and life from insects world and catch it in photo, TFS

Asbed

Wonderful photo Gert , great capture.

In Flemish " Penseelkever " " Brush beetle ".

Thanks for sharing.

gr.Yves

Hello Gert
what a wonderful scene, three different subjects on one flower,
the whole image is perfect captured with very fine details and great luminosity
Have a good night
Jacqueline

Hello Gert,
phantastic image. So much to see on such a small stage with excellent sharp details and sunny natural colours - a vibrantly lively bee beetle enjoying its rich meal of pollen, being completely undisturbed by the silent drama of capture and death right next to it. You have presented the drama of life in poetic concentration.
A pleasure to see you still vitising this site, continuing with contributing high end quality images, and writing encouragingly friendly critiques. Thank you, my dear friend.
With best regards,
Peter

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