Here
we are on the final segment of our walk around the Forty Saints and
if you cast your mind back to the beginning
you may recall that we saw some little Mirid Bug nymphs on some
Asphodel leaves. I hazarded a guess that they may have been the young
of the Orange Blossom Bug, Dionconotus
neglectus, as
we'd seen the adults before on Yellow Asphodels
when we visited
The
Chamomile Lawn. However,
it seems as though we have another contender because if you look
closely, these Yellow Asphodels are being visited by another type of
Mirid Biug, Horistus
infuscatus. But
what does it matter which bugs visit which plants? Simply, plants and
their attendant insects move around over time as conditions on the
planet change. They are climate refugees in a sense and by monitoring
the direction of their migrations it helps us to predict where our
future climate refugees will go as Earth temperatures continue to
rise. The plants, the bugs and us all react to environmental changes
in much the same way.
Now,
who's for a nice hot mug of saloop? If you'd have lived in England in
the 18th
century you'd have kown exactly what I was talking about because this
was what was sold on the streets before Starbucks and Costa or even
Ye Olde British Tea Shoppe dominated the High Street. It was made
from the ground up bulbs of certain orchid species such as this
Pyramidal Orchid, Anacamptis
pyrimidalis,
down at our feet here. As it takes between one and four thousand
tubers to make a kilo of orchid flour, or salep, this is rather
taking its toll on the orchid population as it is still widely used,
particularly in Turkey but also in Greece1.
You
may have noticed these yellow signs during our perigrinations around
the Cretan countryside. They are warning you that this is an official
dog training zone - in other words; if you're molested by an unruly
dog you can't take the owner to court (not successfully at any rate).
So far I've never had a problem with an overenthusiastic hunting dog
nor an overenthusiastic and trigger-happy hunter for that matter.
Meanwhile, sitting on this piece of milky quartz we have a totally
misnamed Gaudy Grasshopper. This particular one, Pyrgomorpha
conica, couldn't
be more camouflaged if he tried but some of the pyrgomorphs have very
bright, warning colouration. Hence the group name.
We've
nearly come full circle now and the path is lined with so called
'everlasting' flowers. They're very popular with flower arrangers
because their colours hold for a long while after they've been cut.
They're pretty popular with this cockchafer too who's having a good
old feed on this one. Strange word, cockchafer. The chafer bit is
late middle English meaning to rub abrasively, but against what I
wonder? Cock, in this sense just means large or vigorous (sorry, you
were thinking what?) so we're left with a large or vigorous abrasive
rubber. As I say, a strange word.
And
so we arrive back where we started and we're being sung home by a
little chaffinch up on the rock. These are probably our most
dedicated of song birds repeating their short phrase up to six
thousand times a day. Back in Victorian England singing matches were
held between cock birds, the winner being the one who sang his song
the most times in a specified period. I was going to point out that
there was no television in those days so people had to devise their
own entertainment but given the state of British TV today with
Bake-offs, Sewing Bees, and Pottery Throws then I wouldn't be
surprised if The Great Chaffinch Sing-off wasn't already in the
pipeline.
The
Extra Bit
Although
we have been all around the Forty Saints I am still hoping that we
can have one last trip up on the top. However Mrs D is still
requiring a lot of nursing and, as recovery is a long term process,
I'm not sure when that will be. Stay in touch through Facebook,
Twitter or by following the blog. All the best for now,
Steve
Photographic
Bit
Many
of you have asked me
what photographic equipment I use so for details of aperture
settings, shutter speeds etc. my pictures will be on Flickr
within
a few days and that has all the geeky stuff.Pictures
were edited with FastStone Image Viewer and combined with Microsoft
Paint.
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GBU!
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