SUMMER ADVENTURES - Episode 27 - A LITTLE DATURA TRIP ( The trippy Thursday episode :D )
I see it during the summer almost every day ...
... on my way to the sea ...
... Datura stramonium is a very robust and noticeable plant ...
... outgrowing the majority of other weeds in this coastal landscape ...
... and accommodating a variety of small invertebrates ...
...it has strong hallucinogenic properties ... but, although I love to explore the psychedelic experiences ...
... even the nightmarish ones ... because of the Datura heavy ... and heavily unpleasant, potentially dangerous physical side effects ... I was always too scared to try it ...
... so I won't talk here about those trippy things ...
... but only about ...
... the multitude of strange and beautiful biological wanders I saw crawling ...
... hiding ...
... or feeding on this plant ...
... things like this lovely little bug with a heart shape on its back ... a design that looks like something from Alice's wonderland ... I think it will fit the Queen of Hearts castle perfectly ...
... the plant itself ...
... when you take a good look at its details ...
... is also pretty trippy looking ... with shapes that could be easily part of a fairytale world ... like this thorny pods ... that explode when comes the time to spread the seeds ...
... when they are small, just formed ... the pods often have a dried out flower, like a little dwarf's cap, on them ...
... and when they dry out and open ...
... they will be a great hiding place and shelter ...
... this Daddy longlegs is resting on one of this pods ...
... and for a moment ... a little Coleoptera is resting on one of his long legs ...
... the long, trumpet-like flowers ...
... when closed .. are also great hideouts ...
... this one is accommodating a small bee ad example ...
... sometimes, when they are on the way to slowly fade, the flowers ...
... lean gently on the surrounding leaves ...
... and that looks pretty poetic ...
... on one occasion ...
... I saw a multitude of winged ant queens on one Datura plant ...
... especially on the flowers ...
... it was a beautiful scene with a lot of elegance on display ...
... and now ... let's take an up-close look at the seeds ...
... the mature seeds in the opened pod ...
... this caterpillar ...
... is feeding ... with the head deep inside the green pod ...
... the thorny crust of these pods is thick, hard and resilient ... making her way to the soft and moist interior is not an easy munching task for a caterpillar ...
... many of these small spiders ...
... are waiting in ambush between the thorns ...
... this colorful bug is feeding ...
... this one just passing by ...
... and on one of these pods ... I found a few of these minuscule eggs on a string ... those were the green lacewing eggs ...
... and from one of those eggs ... something just came out ...
... a minuscule lacewing larva ...
... and is the first time I saw that little predator like that ... just hatched ... resting on the empty eggshell ...
... the adult lacewings ...
... will enter the scene later ... at night ...
... those beautiful and mysterious lacewing eyes ... when photographed with the flash ... look like something out of the DMT experience ... I tried the DMT last week, for the first time, and is still so vivid and fresh in my mind, it was a short and thrilling experience, but this is another story ... for another post...one day, maybe ... I had a big flash and a beautiful DMT feeling passed again through my body when I saw those colorful eyes ... :D but that's also another story ... let's continue with this, more grounded, but not less psychedelic one ... as I was saying, before interrupting myself with some drug abuse ramblings ... the lacewings come out at night ... and the night ...
... is also the time ...
... to see these beautiful flowers open ...
... and meet ...
... their spectacular pollinators ...
... these large moths are flying around like hummingbirds ... it's a great experience sitting at night near the plant with these moths flying all around you exploring with their proboscis your hands and the camera just like the surrounding flowers, you can feel the breeze made by their wings on your skin... I had a lot of fun while patiently waiting for an opportunity to make a few shots .. like the hummingbird's beak, their proboscis is very long, so they can reach the bottom of the long trumpet ... some smaller moths are entering the flowers and then crawl to the bottom ...
... and some others ...
... are exploring the flower's exterior ...
... in search of little holes made by small beetles ... or bigger holes made by crickets that also feed on these flowers at night ... the rich and beautiful polyphony of various crickets species singing was the soundtrack throughout the whole night shooting experience ...
... if they find a right hole in the right place, the small moths are collecting the food through these shortcuts ...
... the night ...
... is also the right time ...
... to observe this massive caterpillar ... another link to the Louis Caroll's wonderland ...
... she comes to feed at night ...
... and I watched her munching the poisonous psychedelic leaves ...
... for at least a half an hour or so :D ...
... with a bit of envy :D ...
... I found this lovely, partially translucent moth ...
... hiding under the large leaf ... and was very frustrating to take a shot from that position ... a lot of time and patience needed ... but it was worthwhile... very beautiful species ... and now ...
... is time to leave this enchanted world of darkness ...
... back in the light of day ...
... on the opposite side of that magic daily coin ...
... other wonders ...
... are waiting ...
... to be seen ...
... a minuscule spider ...
... floating on his web ...
... in the wast green space ... in between the two large leaves ...
... an also minuscule. jumping beetle ...
... that jumps ... and without a solid magnification ... even looks ... very much like a flea ...
... a lovely little beetle from the large and numerous Curculionidae family ...
... an undefined small spider ...
... a minuscule cicada relative ... there is a great variety of them ... every summer I see some species of those that I never saw before ...
... jumping spider with its prey ... the ant queen ...
... a strange little cricket ...
... an interesting blueish young bug ... maybe has just come out from the old skin ...
... many ...
... different ...
... small flies ...
... are present ...
... everywhere on the Datura plant ...
... and many ...
... bugs ...
... can also be found here ...
... along with a multitude ...
... of Daddy Longlegs ...
... this wasp is ...
... eating the caterpillar on the large Datura leaf ...
... and this one has a droplet in its mouth ... and reflected in the little pearl of water ... is the Datura plant ...
... a very common green shield bug ...
... and another one with some eggs or parasites on it ...
... a small grasshopper near the seed pod ...
... and that's it ...
... this little trip is over ...
... have a good day ... or night ... wherever on the planet you are ... as always in these posts on Steemit, all the photographs ... and the GIFs made from some of those photographs ... are my work ... THE END.
Awesome as usual. I still want to meet daddy long legs, our kind with the same name are not the same
If you have some pictures :) will be great to see the different one.
I'll make some
That will be great, thanks ! ... I'm very curious about it
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Just wonderful. I know it's hard work, taking these and posting so many. But isn't it wonderful when you can enjoy your work?
I look up lacewings--they looked like mosquitoes to me. Found out they are actually used for "pest" control. They (especially their larva) eat insects that harm a plant. You may have known that, already, but I didn't :)
And those 'shield' bugs...when I was a kid we used to call them stink bugs.
I'm glad you ended the piece with a wide shot of the plant. After all those pictures, it's startling to realize the amount of life the plant supports.
We here also sometimes call those shield bugs :) stink bugs ...only in another language ... and another very common name here is Smrdljivi Martin, which means Stinky Martin ... and another beetle that jumps is called Salta Martin here in the very Italian influenced dialect ... I mean :) It is funny how this very human name Martin is given pretty regularly to insects ... at least here ...
That's so funny. I found a whole reddit thread dedicated to stinky martins :))
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/d9j24/i_just_found_two_of_these_in_my_hotel_room_what/
:)
Love all!
:)
What a wonderful collection of critters! I didn't know that datura has psychedelic properties. I thought it was just poisonous! No wonder the cows won't eat it. I love the little beetle with the heart on its back.
:) A love bug. It is a really funny insect. I noticed that only some of those bugs have a clearly shaped heart ... the majority have a similar shape but not so perfectly a heart. I heard from someone that chewing the datura root without actually swallow it is an acceptable experience ... but still :) I'll continue to follow the cow's example.
So cool again! Thank you!
Thank you for the comment :)
... I would not talk about a little walk ... this is a great immersion in another world ... even if you do not chew on the dope root :-))
:)