Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Drama on the Cascade Trail

 More photos from Monday's walk on the Cascade Trail.  Above there's an acrobatic pair of Dimorphic Flower Longhorn Beetles mating while hanging beneath a blooming daisy while a related species, the Velvet Flower Longhorn Beetle watches from above.
 There are blooming Checker Bloom everywhere, and I have plenty of photos of them, but this trio caught my eye as they are partly hidden behind tall stems of Western Bracken Fern.
 I was curious why this butterfly chose the wilting flower right next to a fresher-looking one.  Insects detect many smells/tastes/etc. that we cannot, so what's visually appealing to us is usually irrelevant to them.
 It was fun watching this Velvet Flower Longhorn try to get into the disk flowers of a daisy that wasn't quite ready to bloom.
 Two different species of longhorn beetles competing for a meal.
A new species for me, the Tomcat Clover, Trifolium wildenovii.  Looks similar to the many species of Trifolium found on Table Mountain, but it looked different from an I'd seen before.

No comments:

Post a Comment