MORNING NEAR THE COUNTRY LANE

After doing some stuff in the city of Pula, I drove to the rural area about ten kilometers from Vodnjan, twenty or thirty kilometers from where I live.

The Formica fusca ant in this opening shot was photographed on the fallen leaves ...

... under the small trees ...

... near one of the many narrow country lanes that connect small villages and isolated farms in that area.

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If you enlarge this enlargeable photograph by clicking on it, you may notice a small froghopper on the brown, dead foliage that didn't fall in autumn and winter.

On the leaf litter under the oaks, I found another froghopper of the same species.

This is the Cercopis vulnerata, a very common and widespread species in this area.

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A meter or two further, also on the leaves fallen from the oak trees, I came across a small, still wingless nymph of some leafhopper from the Cicadellidae family.

Back on the branches, a meter - meter and a half above the scene ...

... I found a jumping spider that looked like a fresh leaf bud or some similar protuberance at first sight.

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This is the Carrhotus xanthogramma spider. The adult male of that species. Females look considerably different.

Two males were patroling their territories on the branches.

On the blade of grass under the tree, I found this much smaller jumping spider.

I'm not sure about the species, and I can't tell you if this is an adult or a smaller, juvenile version of some bigger jumping spider. Maybe a baby Carrhotus xanthogramma.

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Not far from there, I photographed this small moth. The Elachista argentella.

After some more walking and sniffing around. About fifty meters or so further ...

... I came across these beautiful flowers ...

... that grew among the still leafless shrubs under the oak trees ...

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... and I saw a small moth with exceptionally long antennae. This is the Adela reaumurella, commonly known as the Green longhorn moth. The caterpillars of this species live in the leaf litter under several species of oak and birch trees, where they feed on rotting foliage.

The aforementioned flowers ...

... belong to the Lithospermum purpurocaeruleum plant.

The intense blue of the fully developed flowers ...

... combined with the purple & magenta of the closed buds creates a very attractive combination.

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On the fallen leaves under the flowers, I found a very interesting small cricket. This is the Mogoplistes brunneus, commonly known as the Brown scale-cricket.

While standing near my car parked on the small clearance by the side of the road, I noticed a beetle on one of the surrounding trees.

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I can't tell you the exact species, but I'm pretty sure that this is a beetle from the genus Pseudocistela in the Alleculinae subfamily of the family Tenebrionidae. After taking this last series of shots ...

... I was ready to drive back home.

AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.