A SHORT TRIP AT THE END OF AUGUST

The photographs that you'll see in this post were taken on Saturday. 27th of August 2022 is the exact date. It wasn't much of a trip. I drove only 25 - 30 kilometers to the fields, woods, and meadows in the area around the town of Vodnjan.

In this opening photograph, you can see a kazun. These small, dry stone buildings which look a bit like igloos made of stones, were traditionally used to store the tools needed for agriculture and as shelters from the rains & storms that can arrive suddenly and be very short.

In many cases, they are built as part of the walls around the fields, pastures, small vineyards, or olive orchards, usually from the stones dug out of that piece of land to make it agriculture-friendly.

Kazun is one of the most iconic local attractions in my area. You can find this kind of buildings only on the southern end of Istra, the peninsula on which I live. About forty kilometers north of my southern, seaside hometown, the kazun - land ends.

The old wall shown in these photographs has two kazuns. Among the vegetation that grew near and on the wall ...

... there was a wild asparagus shrub. Asparagus acutifolius is the scientific name of this specific asparagus species. There, among the thorny leaves, I found a leaf beetle strictly connected to the plant.

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This is the Crioceris paracenthesis, an asparagus beetle from the Chrysomelidae family. I already encountered two more common Crioceris species before, but this was my first encounter with the Crioceris paracenthesis. It's very similar to the Crioceris asparagi but is also something new to me and therefore exciting to photograph. It all started with just one beetle, but soon ...

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... I was observing what looked like a mating-related action. I'm not completely sure about it, but I'll say that two males are chasing the female, and kinda fighting to get the winning position.

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Although I didn't find anything specific about this species through my Internet search, I suppose that Crioceris paracenthesis beetles feed on various parts of the Asparagus acutifolius plant, both in their larval and adult stages, just like the other two Crioceris species present in this area, the Crioceris asparagi, and the Crioceris duodecimpunctata.

After half an hour with asparagus beetles, it was time to leave that place and continue the journey.

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Some minutes later and five or six kilometers further, I stopped in a small village whose name I had completely forgotten, to photograph some chicken.

I saw a fairly large homestead ...

... and many chickens in the yard ...

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... so I tried to get a couple of chicken portraits through the fence.

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Most chickens were brown. I mean, in various shades of brown.

I saw only a couple of black ones.

And that's all I can tell you about those chickens.

Soon I sat in my car and drove away to see where the road will take me.

This spider was photographed somewhere along the road, maybe ten or fifteen kilometers from the small village and the chicken farm.

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I stopped by the side of the road, in an area with mostly dry herbaceous vegetation.

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The spider was nicely camouflaged on the stem of the Cephalaria leucantha plant. It looked like a part of that plant from a distance. Neoscona adianta is the name of this orb-weaver from the Araneidae family.

Here you can see a flowerhead made of many small Cephalaria leucantha flowers.

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On a nearby flowerhead, I found another spider. A crab spider this time. A juvenile Thomisus onustus from the Thomisidae family. Although it wasn't easy to spot the Neoscona adianta on the plant's stem, this small crab spider was even better camouflaged on the surface under the flowers.

This mating pair of Carpocoris purpureipennis shield bugs was photographed on a flowerhead that has recently lost all its flowers.

Here you can see the nymph of that species. This is a young wingless Carpocoris purpureipennis bug.

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It was photographed on another flowerless Cephalaria leucantha flowerhead.

Here you can see the dried-out, empty seed pods of a plant that I wasn't able to identify. It could be the Alyssum loiseleurii. Or the Alyssum alyssoides. Or the Lepidium ruderale. Or something else.

Here you can see a small group of these plants.

I like the shape of these dry stems and translucent seed pods very much.

The following links will take you to the sites with more information about some of the protagonists of this post. I found some stuff about them there.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Crioceris+paracenthesis&sxsrf=ALiCzsbSw98gP5D5sEMoiu7CdXTlSc1Mpw:1666286801467&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwitwJSHqu_6AhUGqaQKHR6KBh8Q_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1549&bih=919&dpr=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoscona_adianta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomisus_onustus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpocoris_purpureipennis
https://identify.plantnet.org/

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