i’ve added this little animated gif to the respective gallery:
it shows the same glowworm at “usual” lighting, and with a little more light so you can see what the bug itself looks like.
although they are called glowworms or fireflies, this really is a species of beetle.
june 8-10 was the weekend of this year’s biodiversity day (geo tag der artenvielfalt) in the ötztal (ötz valley), austria.
our accommodation was the university center obergurgl (universitätszentrum obergurgl) [G], close to the valley’s end. driving through sölden on my way up brought back some precious childhood memories – when i was young, the extended family went there for hiking holidays, several times…
at the event, there were lots of familiar faces that i don’t get to see very often – batman toni with his wife vera and son matthaeus, alice, bernadette, barbara, erich, andi & tom from blattform, insect-expert timo, …
day one (the day before biodiversity day) included a geological excursion, and the bat & insect nights at lake piburg (piburger see) [G]. we even caught a brown long-eared bat (plecotus auritus), which hadn’t been documented for the region before!
update: the official biodiversity day (with all the daytime surveys) took place on saturday, june 9th.
i spent the day with barbara, erich, andi and tom, botanizing our way (their way, really ;-)) through the vegetation. there even was a sensational discovery: tom found the black spleenwort (asplenium adiantum-nigrum) – the first verification of this species for all of north tirol.
[view photos: the day before biodiversity day]
[view photos: biodiversity day 2007]
in fall 2005 i received a shoot of the african carrion flower (orbea variegata). two weeks ago, it opened a flower for the very first time.
it naturally grows in southern africa – must be a happy omen. ;-)
it quickly became obvious why the succulent plant was named carrion flower (aasblume in german): the flower produces an intense smell of decay to attract blowflies (the pollinators for this species).
stinky, yet fascinating!
[view photos: african carrion flower]
before you start reading, please click “play” on the righthand video. :-)
i’ve been out in the field a lot, lately.
it’ll take some time until i can upload the photos from various excursions, hiking trips etc., BUT here’s a bunch of photos taken in the past two weeks, with a common denominator: reproduction.
you might come to think that i’m fixated, but i’m not.
they were litterally doing it everywhere!
[view photos: insect mating season]
some photos from a recent walk along a forest clearing, depicting the most important processes in life: feeding, mating and feeding. ;-)
the post title describes the first two photos in the gallery.
[view photos: beetles and other arthropods]
the other day, i found some three orange pupae on the side of the road. i didn’t know what they were1, so i decided to bring them home and see what would hatch.
only three days later, the little creatures emerged, and turned out to be seven-spot ladybirds.
i named them hubert, rupert and milbert (the photos show milbert, the first one that hatched; somebody – i’m not pointing fingers ;-) – renamed the other two harry and toto).
it was interesting to see that the freshly hatched beetles didn’t show the characteristic spots from the beginning. it took 30 to 40 minutes until the spots were “completed”.
[view photos: ladybirds hatching]
sounds like this is a bad seal hunting season: about 100 ships got stuck in pack ice when temperatures dropped off newfoundland’s northeastern coast.
good news for the seals, especially after this year’s bad start for the pups (very bad conditions for birthgiving and raising the young).
as one of my friends put it: pack ice for the win!
indiana times article, google news (en) (de)
