SUMMER DAYS IN THE FOREST - part three

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·@borjan·
0.000 HBD
SUMMER DAYS IN THE FOREST - part three
This entire episode was photographed on a small, cleared parchment in the woods ...
![IMG_0289 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/bKEoZiU7-IMG_028920malo.jpg)
... carpeted with dead leaves fallen some time ago when the trees were still there.
![IMG_0312 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/qwVdagMA-IMG_031220malo.jpg)
Now you can find fresh green sprouts of two oak species that grow on the small remains of the cut trees.
![IMG_0314 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/NHUsI2al-IMG_031420malo.jpg)
They look like bushes ... surrounded by small trees.
![IMG_0326 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/ZBqPwQNi-IMG_032620malo.jpg)
Oaks in this relatively dry seaside area with poor soil, never grow like in the inland of this peninsula. I'll put the post on the pinmapple Map, to avoid explaining where exactly this place is.
![IMG_0232 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/x8xSSUBM-IMG_023220malo.jpg)
This is the Attelabus nitens. You saw it already on the opening photograph.
![IMG_0308 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/j6IRwGdP-IMG_030820malo.jpg)
This Weevil species is also called the Oak Leaf-roller ... and on the following photograph ...
![IMG_0317 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/jmawdcHv-IMG_031720malo.jpg)
... you can see the female at work. This may look like feeding at first glance ... but she's actually cutting the leaf with its mandibles ...
![IMG_0375 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/lctXC9MB-IMG_037520malo.jpg)
... she's cutting along the main vein ... and then will proceed ...
![IMG_0370 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/WJizQgxl-IMG_037020malo.jpg)
... to shape the thing by rolling it ...
![IMG_0378 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/D2JA1hwr-IMG_037820malo.jpg)
... until the nice, cozy shelter for the egg is formed. The weevil lays 1 - 5 eggs before start the rolling.
![IMG_0262 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/u5Nlr5VI-IMG_026220malo.jpg)
Here you can see a recently finished roll.
![IMG_0320 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/MQZSUokr-IMG_032020malo.jpg)
This one is a bit older ...
![IMG_0321 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/jLCbn2wD-IMG_032120malo.jpg)
... and is situated on the young sprouts of the Evergreen oak (Quercus ilex) ... an iconic tree in this area.
![IMG_0365 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/1P1c11w7-IMG_036520malo.jpg)
While observing the work of another female not far from there ... I took this shot. Or more precisely ... I took a shot ... and this is a crop of that shot. I was photographing the female and I noticed the minuscule black wasp on the right, only later, on the PC monitor. I did a little search on internet ... and came to conclusion that this must be one of the Poropoea stollwerckii  wasps that use the eggs of Attelabus nitens as food reservoirs for their offspring. I found only a couple of pictures of this wasp species online ... and I'm not sure if the one on my photograph is a complete match ... but there is a good chance that it is ... I think.
![IMG_0365 miniKROP osa parazit.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/KbB3OfMT-IMG_036520miniKROP20osa20parazit.jpg)
Here is another crop, and a more close up look with considerable loss in image quality. I actually had the opportunity to take a good picture of this tiny insect, my lens was up to the task ... but I just didn't notice it.
 ![IMG_0386 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/QpRl3O3B-IMG_038620malo.jpg)
While the weevil was rolling and the wasp parasite was waiting for the good moment to do its reproductive job ... there were some other interesting species on the neighboring leaves ... this Lynx spider, Oxyopes lineatus, was patroling the shrub like formation made of oak sprouts. These spiders are very fast hunters, able to do sudden jumps similar to Jumping spiders.
<a href="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/aSXRxTyQ-IMG_017320IZHOSHTRENO.jpg"><img 
src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/aSXRxTyQ-IMG_017320IZHOSHTRENO.jpg"></a> (Enlargeable)
These lovely amber Tumbling beetles ...
<a href="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/n4nGL8nU-IMG_017420IZHOSHTRENO.jpg"><img 
src="https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/n4nGL8nU-IMG_017420IZHOSHTRENO.jpg"></a> (Enlargeable)
... were feeding on the upper surfaces of the leaves.
![IMG_0178 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/FnX6mxeI-IMG_017820malo.jpg)
I don't know what exactly they were eating. Maybe some kind of mildew fungus ... like some Lady beetles. 
![IMG_0182 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/014U2RjK-IMG_018220malo.jpg)
Usually I encounter black Tumbling beetles on flowers ... on the shrubs and on the meadows, where they feed on pollen ...
![IMG_0204 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/5N5tat2R-IMG_020420malo.jpg)
... I never saw this woodland species before.
![IMG_0153 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/yhi1I5ha-IMG_015320malo.jpg)
Although the days are constantly hot and dry ... I found a small mushroom ... this was a highly unexpected find.
![IMG_0330 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/WFoK349R-IMG_033020malo.jpg)
Some leaf - rolls made by Attelabus nitens look like they will fall at any moment ...
![IMG_0210 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/HC1CkI08-IMG_021020malo.jpg)
... and eventually they will ... here you can see a rolled leaf laying on the upper surface of a healthy leaf.
![IMG_0238 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/tMvwTDbw-IMG_023820malo.jpg)
The egg laying and leaf rolling is preceded by mating, of course.
![IMG_0298 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/LDsUumCG-IMG_029820malo.jpg)
And on that day I had the opportunity to photograph this part of the story too.
![IMG_0254 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/S83iYxhe-IMG_025420malo.jpg)
Small groups assemble on leaves and each female will mate repeatedly over a few days ...
![IMG_0264 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/k9vj68ej-IMG_026420malo.jpg)
... so the situation often looks crowded ...
![IMG_0257 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/DAVwy21I-IMG_025720malo.jpg)
... with some rolling and tumbling involved.
![IMG_0353 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/Q0RoAabr-IMG_035320malo.jpg)
While I was photographing the life of these small arthropods ... I noticed a few quadrangular holes scattered around ...they looked like little graves.
![IMG_0336 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/ySXetx17-IMG_033620malo.jpg)
I saw some plastic containers too ... I didn't think much about that stuff ... it looked like something the workers that cleared that parchment in the woods, left behind ...
![IMG_0339 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/K9KloMDE-IMG_033920malo.jpg)
... but than a man from a nearby village appeared ... a young man that I know very well ...
![IMG_0335 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/18Zn8Y3T-IMG_033520malo.jpg)
... this was his property in the woods ... and he told me a story ...
![IMG_0342 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/vhMry5Ze-IMG_034220malo.jpg)
... he found something is buried here when he cut the trees ...
![IMG_0352 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/QfZGJKnW-IMG_035220malo.jpg)
... and called the police.
![IMG_0341 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/Y4E2wYFd-IMG_034120malo.jpg)
They dug up the containers ... and found nothing inside ... but they found in the last few years containers like this filled with a nice stash of drugs ... in the form of powder. He didn't know what exactly they found ... Cocaine ... heroin ... who knows ... he had quite a few talks with the police after that find, and the thing was bordering with real trouble for him ... so he confessed that was pretty scared when he saw me crouched there.
![IMG_0343 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/EImNiXAV-IMG_034320malo.jpg)
Now some very legal looking little plants are growing in those containers.
![IMG_0346 malo.jpg](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/borjan/rBJ6eG1B-IMG_034620malo.jpg)
As always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 44.873849 lat 13.979282 long  d3scr)
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