What are all the black specks in this thistle head?
The prairie is covered this week in shining flower beetles (Olibrus, in the family Phalacridae). They are aggregating in nearly every composite flower head, with a fair number just floating about among the grasses. The adults feed on pollen, and their sheer numbers make me wonder if there will be enough pollen left over to perform the plants’ reproductive functions. Here are some shots from Meadowbrook park.
Scaling the stamens
Getting busy.
Olibrus, up close
photo details
Canon EOS 7d camera
(top 2) Canon 100mm f2.8 macro lens
ISO 800 f/5.6-f/10 1/160 sec
(bottom 2) Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x macro lens
ISO 100 f/13 1/250 sec
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
absolutely stunning! I always scream when I pick up flowers to my face and an insect crawls onto my face. I need to stop doing that.
Insects are fine, but I think I’d freak out if I picked up a crab spider that way…
Alex, crab spiders will jump off the flower if you’d pick it. They are really nice little fellows not crawling on your face – except you’re a bee or a fly
So that’s what I’ve been finding in goldenrod heads for all these years… though I haven’t seen them in other plant flowers, only in goldenrod.
Yeah, they’re in the goldenrod here too.
Thanks Alex! Now I can label some pictutes of these guy I have, too.
Beautiful images, Alex.
[...] Alex at Myrmecos shares some elegant photographs of Shining Flower Beetles (Olibrus) aggregating on flower heads in tremendous numbers. Click through to see some of [...]