During the wintertime in the year 2008 I have got
my indispensable fotocamera which I using until today. The first documentation
of a collecting trip could be done in the hot summertime. The following
travelog is about a journey to the biggest island of Greece – Crete.
We started our trip in the
north of the island, district of Rethymnon. First stop was this impenetrable bushland.
Flowering Vitex agnus-castus L. dominated the
landscape. In the midsummer this purple flowers are very attractive for many
insects and some kinds of Jewel Beetles.
One of them is Acmaeodera cecropia Kiesenwetter,
1858. When they fly they look like grey bees.
South coast of Crete. Nice place to relax on the
beach.
Anthaxia umbellatarum (Fabricius, 1787) on white
Umbelliferae.
Swarmed at the beach because of open fire for
barbecue. - Melanophila cuspidata (Klug, 1829). Females of this species laying
eggs on burned wood.
Prunus dulcis L. in the macchia. Nice place for Jewel
Beetles.
One endemic Jewel Beetle on Crete is Perotis margotanus
(Novak, 1983).
Very common in habitats with different fruit trees: Agrilus roscidus Kiesenwetter, 1857.
Our target on this day was to walking through the Imbros
valley. Before we arrived to the beginning of the trail we had to cross this
plateau.
Flowering Thymus sp.
The colourful cuckoo wasp (Chrysis sp.) visited yellow
flowers.
The Imbros valley is covered with many different kind of plants. We also found Pistacia sp.
Agrilus marozzinii Gobbi, 1974 on the leaves of Pistacia sp.
Cupressus sempervirens L. dominated the dry riverbed.
And with much luck the endemic Lamprodila cretica
(Zábranský, 1994) could be observed.
Looking through the rocks.
A ruin on the hill.
Flew near the ground. The cuckoo wasp of the genus Hedychrum sp.
Acmaeoderella longissima (Abeille de Perrin, 1904) was
searching for a good place to laying eggs on a dry branch of Quercus sp.
The surrounding of Omalos is very interesting for collecting Jewel Beetles.
Acmaeoderella adspersula (Illiger, 1803) could be
found on a very dry twig of an unspecified piece of wood on the ground.
The hostplant of the following Jewel Beetle is Phlomis sp.
The larvae make mines within the leaves.
Trachys pumila (Illiger, 1803).
Among tourists is this small village very popular. Agia Pelagia in the north of Crete.
In the foreground of this foto is shown some kind of an oak (Quercus sp.).
Agrilus hastulifer (Ratzeburg, 1837) swarmed around the leaves of this oak.
Cistus sp., the last dry flower of this kind of plant found on the whole journey!
Capnodis tenebricosa (Olivier, 1790) on Rumex sp.
Hot and dry orchard!
Capnodis tenebrionis (Linnaeus, 1761) sat on branches of fruit trees.
Macchia!
Praying mantis is well camouflaged on the stony
ground: Rivetina sp. (Mantodea).
Common Jewel Beetle. - Acmaeoderella villosula
(Steven, 1830).
The scientific name of this species is quite unclear. Until
today it was determinated as Agrilus grandiceps Kiesenwetter, 1857, but this
name seems to be unavailable for this taxon. The species which is shown belongs
to the Agrilus litura Kiesenwetter, 1857 – group.
In midsummer the landscape is very dry and dusty.
Capnodis cariosa (Pallas, 1776) could be found in the bush.
Very windy place with a broken stamm of Pinus sp. Very shy and fast Jewel Beetle sat on it…
…Chrysobothris solieri Gory & Laporte, 1837.
We spent our last day on the plateau of Lassithi.