Photos Arne Ader and Urmas Tartes
Translation Liis

Striped shield bugs

Striped shield bug; Minstrel bug; Italian striped bug Triiplutikas      Graphosoma lineatum

No one who encounters the striped shield bug can have any doubt about its identity.

The bug is up to 1 ½ centimetres long, with a flat, wide body and no one else wears such a striped ”Vatican Swiss Guards uniform”.

Photos Arne Ader and Kaarel Kaisel
Translation Liis

Biting stonecrop

Biting stonecrop; Wallpepper   Harilik kukehari                Sedum acre

The biting stonecrop that is among our smaller plants flowers.

Despite its small size the stonecrops are well visible in dry heaths with a scanty flora. The stems of the plant stretch almost three times taller  during the flowering.

Photos Arne Ader
Translation Liis

Common ringed plovers

Common ringed plover   Liivatüll     Charadrius hiaticula

Elegant shore birds who live on the coast and the islands, nesting on the sand or gravel, in north-western Estonia in the gravel quarries.

Easy to recognize from appearance: top of head and back sand grey, a white patch on the base of the beak, eyes covered by black “mask”. The neck is ringed by a white band and the chest is decorated with a black shirt front. Beak orange with a black tip, legs also orange or yellowish.

Photo Arne Ader
Translation Liis

Follicle fruits of marsh marigold

Marsh marigold    Harilik varsakabi         Caltha palustris

Many plants have not started flowering yet but the seeds of the marsh marigold are already ripening and if it hurries, it will have time to flower once more at the end of summer.

As the grasses develop the marsh marigold that flourished in damp habitats in spring becomes less noticeable, even the leaves will lose their bright green colour.

Photos  Kristel Vilbaste
Translation Liis

The nests of black garden ants this year in Tartu are built at the roots of dandelions that retained moisture  during the recent drought. Do the ants predict a dry summer?

 

Black garden ant      Mullamurelane or must sipelgas         Lasius niger