THE TREE HEATHER POST

The tree heather, or giant heather, as it is called in some places, is a flowering plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and parts of East Africa.

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It grows in sunny, open spaces as a large, robust shrub or a small tree.
In the coastal area called Palera, a couple of kilometers from the village of Liznjan and five or six kilometers from where I live, the dense growth of these plants forms an impenetrable maquis that provides shelter for many animals.

Today I'll try to show you the beauty, biodiversity, and uniqueness of an area densely covered with tree heather.

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Here you can see the Cidnopus pilosus, a beetle from the Elateridae family, climbing the twigs situated low on the shrub.
The tree heather is an evergreen plant, its foliage doesn't change with the changing of the seasons.
However, that doesn't mean that the appearance of the habitat dominated by this plant remains uniformly green all year round.

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A multitude of tiny, bell-like flowers covers the shrubs in springtime.

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They look a bit like snow or frost when seen from a distance.

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In this set of six photographs, you can see the Colletes succinctus, a bee from theColletidae family feeding on their nectar.
This mining bee, commonly known as the heather colletes, feeds mainly on flowers of plants from the Ericaceae family - which means heathers.

The scientific name of the tree heather is Erica arborea.
In this and the following shot ...

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... you can see a butterfly resting on the twigs on the top of a pretty tall shrub.
The photographs were taken in summer when the flowers turned into fruits that looked like brown, dried-out flowers.

At the end of a long and usually hot summer day, after intensively searching for nectar on the coastal meadows of Palera ...

... the Melanargia galathea butterflies come to rest on the shrubs where most of them will spend the whole night.

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These butterflies from the Satyrinae subfamily of the large and varied Nymphalidae family can be well-hidden and hard to notice on the tree heather.

In spring, when the shrubs were still covered with fresh white flowers ...

... I photographed this butterfly from the Nymphalinae subfamily of the Nymphalidae family. The name of the species is Nymphalis polychloros.

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In this set of four photographs, you can see the green stick insect walking among the flowers.

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Here you can take a better, more up-close look at its head.

This species, the Bacillus rossius, commonly known as the Mediterranean stick insect, can be green, gray, or in a few shades of brown.

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Here you can see a bee resting on the twigs.

In this case, I can't tell you the name of the species. To me, it resembles some bees from the Colletidae and Andrenidae family.

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In this shot, the same bee was photographed in a slightly different pose, and from a slightly different angle, so the background is slightly different as well.
All that gives a slightly different feel to the picture.

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In this photograph, you can see a small isolated Erica arborea shrub in the foreground and dense vegetal walls made of taller shrubs of the same kind in the background.

A very young Tettigonia viridissima nymph was resting on the lower twigs of the small shrub. The adult Tettigonia viridissima is a very big, robust bushcricket.

Here you can see a lovely trio of tree heather flower buds.

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The buds and semi-opened flowers have a slight pinkish tinge.

Here you can see a caterpillar posing among the old flowers that are slowly turning into fruits.

in this shot, I came a bit closer, so you can take a better look at the caterpillar's red face.

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It's a moth caterpillar. In its adult stage, this will be a diurnal moth from the Erebidae family.

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The name of the species is Amata phegea. This caterpillar doesn't feed on tree heather but on a wide variety of common, widespread herbaceous plants like Plantago, Rumex, Galium, Taraxacum, and others.

The moth shown resting on the dry, leafless twigs in this and the following three photographs also belongs to the Erebidae family.

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Here you can see the same moth from two different angles.

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The name of the species is Eublemma candidana.

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In some places, isolated shrubs grow closer to the sea. I took this photograph on a windy stretch of coastline four or five kilometers north of Palera. The shrub shown here was shaped by the wind, it isn't small but is pretty low.

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I photographed this moth on one of its barren branches. The name of the species is Agriphila inquinatella. It belongs to the Crambidae family.
A few minutes later, the moth flew away, but ...

... but very soon landed on another branch of the same shrub. The moth is posing on another dry, leafless twig in this photograph, but the nearby twigs blurred in the background are green and vigorous.

The base of the plant, oriented towards the sea from where the strongest winds are blowing is barren while the opposite, sheltered part of this shrub is prospering.

Like in a cage, among the dry twigs and branches of another tree heather shrub in that area ...

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... Urospermum dalechampii flowers were growing. If you enlarge this picture by clicking on it, you'll notice a bee feeding in the center of the flower situated right in the center of the shot. The scientific name of that species from the Halictidae family is Halictus scabiosae.

On one of the twigs above the flowers, I found another interesting moth. This is the Coleophora glaucicolella, a well-camouflaged moth from the Coleophoridae family.

Here you can see a small group of brown leaves that will fall soon.

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The dry, barren parts of the shrubs have a certain witchy, gothic appeal when photographed on a gloomy winter day.

Here you can see a horizontal dry branch surrounded by blooming herbaceous plants in spring.

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This set of four photographs taken at the end of March 2021 shows a bunch of fresh Erica arborea flowers.

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Here you can see two flies from the Bibionidae family feeding on the flowers.

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The name of the species is Bibio marci. The flies shown in the previous picture and the ones in the left and central photograph of this tryptich are males. In the photograph on the right, you can see a female.
Flies from the Bibionidae family are commonly known as March flies.

Here you can see a pretty big caterpillar roaming among the flowers. This is the larva of the Lasiocampa quercus, a medium-sized moth from the Lasiocampidae family.
The larva shown in the following photograph is even bigger.

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This beautiful, very colorful caterpillar is the larval stage of a large, robust moth from the Sphingidae family. Acherontia atropos is the scientific name of this fairly famous species commonly known as the death's-head hawkmoth.

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Here you can see a big, well-camouflaged grasshopper resting on the dead branches of the tree heather shrub that was cut to enlarge the walking path that leads through the dense, intricate maquis.

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The name of the species is Anacridium aegyptium. It belongs to the Cyrtacanthacridinae subfamily of the large and varied Acrididae family.

Among the twigs at the top of one of the cut branches, I found a much smaller grasshopper. This is the Chorthippus brunneus, a species from the Gomphocerinae subfamily of the Acrididae family.

The Coenonympha pamphilus butterfly landed for a minute on the dry twigs and woody fragments scattered on the ground under and around the cut branches.
Coenonympha pamphilus is a small butterfly from the Satyrinae subfamily of the Nymphalidae family.

When the big old shrubs get cut, the young shoots form neat green circles around the stumps.

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Here you can see one of those circles from a different angle.
On another one ...

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... I found some interesting details when I came closer. Here and in the following triptych...

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... you can see a young nymph of the European mantis (Mantis religiosa).

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On the top of another twig in the same circle, a tick was waiting for a package of fresh blood in the form of a bird or mammal. A human would be a good source of food as well.

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Here you can see a dry, reddish shoot surrounded by many green ones.

Always in the same circle of shoots, I also photographed this colorful beetle from the Chrysomelidae family.

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The name of the species is Cryptocephalus bipunctatus.

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On one occasion, while walking through Palera, I saw a relatively big wasp resting on the tree heather.

The insect had long legs and very long antennae, and it was a species I hadn't seen before.

I had to follow the wasp from a distance for a while ...

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... before I could get close enough for a good macro shot.

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I didn't know the name of the species or anything else about this insect back then in the summer of 2020 when the photographs were taken, but now, I can confidently tell you at least the scientific name of the family, and a bit less confidently - the name of the genus.
Dear friends and others, this is an Ichneumon wasp, which means that the species belongs to the Ichneumonidae family. The genus is probably Ophion.

Here you can see a spider waiting in ambush on the twigs near the top of the shrub.

This is the Oxyopes heterophthalmus, a spider from the Oxyopidae family.

In July 2021, I found a fresh new green lacewing that recently came out of its larval skin.

The insect was posing among the tiny brown fruits of a large tree heather shrub.

If you take a good look at the details of this shot, you'll notice the translucent empty exoskeleton near the head of the green lacewing.

The scientific name of the species is Chrysoperla carnea.

Near the ground, among the lowest twigs and branches of the shrub, I found and photographed a cluster of Lotus herbaceus flowers.

On the top of another shrub, I had the opportunity to photograph a predatory fly with its prey. In this and the following photograph ...

... you can see the Dioctria longicornis, a fly from the Asilidae family, feeding on a much smaller fly from the Sciaridae family.

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Among the branches a bit lower on the same shrub, I took this portrait of an Acrida ungarica grasshopper.

Here you can see a Neoscona adianta spider resting on the lower twigs of the nearby shrub. Neoscona adianta is an orb-weaving spider from the Araneidae family.

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This set of four photographs shows a Philoscia muscorum woodlouse on one of the relatively thick branches at the base of the shrub.
When the following shot was taken ...

... the tree heathers were fully in bloom, and Papilio machaon, a big butterfly from the Papilionidae family was resting on one of the shrubs with its wings folded.

When I got closer ...

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... the beautiful butterfly spread its wings.

Here you can see a flower of the Leontodon hispidus plant that was growing surrounded by shrubs.

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The same day I also photographed this interesting larva on one of the lover branches of a tree heather shrub.
I can't tell you what species exactly this is but I'm sure that it belongs to the Psychidae family.
In their larval stage, moths from that family use straws, twigs, and other materials to build protective shells. Each species has a different architectural style.

Here you can see the flowers of the Lathyrus latifolius plant ...

... that was growing as a vine entangled with the branches of the Erica arborea shrub. The photograph was taken in the summer of 2022.

This is the Adela reaumurella ...

... a moth from the Adelidae family.

Its antennae are extremely long and its wings are iridescent. It's a very cool moth.

I decided to end this post with a photograph taken on the 23rd of April 2021, at the end of a long sunny day.
As the night was approaching, a Bombus terrestris bumble bee found a nice sleeping place on the tree heather shrub.

AND THAT'S IT. I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO SAY. NO MORE PICTURES TO SHOW TODAY. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.