Wednesday, 25 August 2021
15-8-2021 VALE DA MULA, PORTUGAL - OAK GALL WASP (Tribe Cynipini)
The image shows a Pyrenean oak (Quercus pyrenaica) heavily adorned with a leafy lichen like Evernia prunastri. The reddish-brown, spherical growth on the branch is an oak gall (commonly called an "agallón" in Spain), which is a tumor-like plant tissue created in response to a gall wasp's larvae.
Oak gall wasps (Tribe Cynipini) are highly specialized insects that induce abnormal plant growths, or "galls," on oak trees. Comprising roughly 1,000 species worldwide, these tiny wasps manipulate plant hormones to create distinct structures—from tiny spheres to large "oak apples"—that provide their larvae with both food and shelter.
15-8-2021 VALE DA MULA, PORTUGAL - MEADOW BROWN BUTTERFLY (Maniola jurtina)
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The meadow brown (Maniola jurtina) is a butterfly found in the Palearctic realm. Its range includes Europe south of 62°N, Russia eastwards to the Urals, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran, North Africa and the Canary Islands. The larvae feed on grasses.
There is marked sexual dimorphism in this species. The upperside of the male is uniformly light brown with a black ocellus centered white at the apex of the forewing, while the female has a tawny patch more or less extended around this ocella. The underside forewing is ochre-colored bordered with dark beige with the same ocelli at the apex in the male, while the hindwing is greyish to brown with a more or less orange band in the female. The males are also much more active and range far about, while females fly less and often may not move away from the area where they grew up.
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
Monday, 23 August 2021
Sunday, 22 August 2021
22-8-2021 SPACE MUSEUM, CUENCA - GOLDEN BIRDWING BUTTERFLY (Troides aeacus)
Troides aeacus, the golden birdwing, is a large tropical butterfly belonging to the swallowtail family, Papilionidae.
It is found in northern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Burma, China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, peninsular Malaysia, and Taiwan.
Although it is classified as a species of Least Concern by the IUCN Red List, it may require protection in peninsular Malaya.
4-12-2015 SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA - YELLOW ORANGE TIP BUTTERFLY (Ixias pyrene)
Ixias pyrene, the yellow orange tip, is a small butterfly of the family Pieridae, that is, the yellows and whites, which is found in Sri Lanka, India and southeast Asia.
It is distributed throughout the plains and lowlands of Sri Lanka and peninsular India. It is common in dry deciduous forests, scrub and fallow lands and found throughout the year. However, it is more common during the monsoon and post-monsoon and considerably rare in the summer.
Saturday, 21 August 2021
21-8-2021 CIUDAD RODRIGO, ZAMORA - EURASIAN JACKDAW (Corvus monedula)
The western jackdaw (Coloeus monedula), also known as the Eurasian jackdaw, the European jackdaw, or simply the jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa; it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in the winter. Four subspecies are recognised, which differ mainly in the colouration of the plumage on the head and nape. Linnaeus first described it formally, giving it the name Corvus monedula. The common name derives from the word jack, denoting "small", and daw, a less common synonym for "jackdaw", and the native English name for the bird.
Measuring 34–39 centimetres (13–15 in) in length, the western jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. Like its relatives, jackdaws are intelligent birds, and have been observed using tools. An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, it eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas. Western jackdaws are monogamous and build simple nests of sticks in cavities in trees, cliffs, or buildings. About five pale blue or blue-green eggs with brown speckles are laid and incubated by the female. The young fledge in four to five weeks.
The western jackdaw is found from Northwest Africa through all of Europe, except for the subarctic north, and eastwards through central Asia to the eastern Himalayas and Lake Baikal. To the east, it occurs throughout Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India. However, it is regionally extinct in Malta and Tunisia. The range is vast, with an estimated global extent between 1 and 10 million square kilometres (0.4–4 million square miles). It has a large global population, with an estimated 15.6 to 45 million individuals in Europe alone.[45] Censuses of bird populations in marginal uplands in Great Britain show that western jackdaws greatly increased in numbers between the 1970s and 2010, although this increase may be related to recovery from previous periods when they were regarded as pests. The UK population was estimated at 2.5 million individuals in 1998, up from 780,000 in 1970.
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