Unfortunately we
seem to be spending a lot of time in and around hospitals at the
moment; in fact Mrs D is collecting hospials and departments like
cards in a game of old maid. At the end of March she collected
Pneumology from Agios Nikolaos and while we were there samping the
delights of their cuisine (one night it was just a plastic bowl of
wet rice) I managed to escape a few times and find a bit of peace
with the urban wildlife. Here are a few of my favourites:
 |
Fumaria
capreolata, White
Ramping-Fumitory
I
hadn't seen this one before. Apparently the quaint English name
indicates that it is a white flower, rearing up, with smoky leaves.
|
Psilothrix
viridicoerulea, Soft-winged
Flower Beetle
These
are very common over here at this time of year and just look at the
amount of pollen he's transferring as he makes his way among the
flowers.
Syrphidae,
Hoverfly
Beetles,
bugs and bees are not the only pollinators of course; flies such as
this Hoverfly (here pollinating some Cretan Viper's Grass, Scorzonera
cretica),
contribute vastly to plant pollination (see The
Far Side).
 |
Polistes
bucharensis, Umbrella Paper Wasp
|
Spring,
of course, is nest building time and this individual is bosy building
her umbrella shaped nest. I'm sticking my neck out a bit with the
species identification but for all you hymenopterists out there here
is a link to the relevant scientific paper:
Revision
of the West Palaearctic Polistes Latreille, with the descriptions of
two species – an integrative approach using morphology and DNA
barcodes (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)
 |
Philaeus
chrysops, Goldeneye
Jumping Spider
|
With
all these insects about it is no surprise to find a few preatory
spiders about. These are both the same species; the one on the left
sporting the long, hairy beard is the female and the colourful one on
the right is the male.
 |
Limax
flavus, Cellar,
Tawny Garden or Yellow Slug
|
Just
because you are a slug doesn't mean that you can't make an attempt at
looking pretty (in fact some of the sea slugs are prettier than any
piece of jewelery). The top two tentacles are it's sight organs and
the lower two are its olfactory organs. If the slug loses any of them
through not pulling it in quick enough it can grow a new one.
The
Extra Bit
You may be wondering where all the larger animals such as the urban fox are - well, the fox never made it to Crete. We have our own subspecies of Badger and Hedgehog but I didn't see any in the town. As for the birds, I didn't get to photograph any but I was serenaded by a beautiful nightingale as I slipped out of the hospital for a cigarette at four in the morning.
Next time: something for the butterfly lovers. See you soon, 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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LINKS:
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Explore
the region with the #CreteNature interactive Hiking
and Nature Map
Beautiful photos! I hope your hospital tours soon end, though, and favourably.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susannah
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