ID those pleaaase

[Conchiolin]

Hello guys!!
Insect life during summer is wonderful and i come across several different species during walks etc...

I know lots of you are depressed right now because of the lack of plant life and all so i decided to post a pic of a beautiful flower i've never encountered before that i saw last week.

Cheer up dudes and some help is needed to id those insects.

And finally don't forget to read the new Harry Potter book, the greatest book ever...............

Thanks muggles!

[IL-PINE]

heh, the insects I have no idea!

the plant is Delphinum halteratum, the beautiful summer flowering plant

[Conchiolin]

Thanks Pine. It's quite rare to see a flower during summer days.

I think the big 2cm bug is the black flower scarab.

There are so many species missing in our books about fauna!

Just yesterday evening i found another moth i've never seen before and i couldn't find it on any book.

Here's the pic:

[IL-PINE]

wow, beautiful.

yes indeed, we are putting our future in you, conchiolin
maybe in the next few years we will see a book published on Maltese Insects

[wolf]

I echo Pine's thinking - beautiful pics by the way Conch.
Unfortunately what I wiitnessed today was not very pretty at all
....words tend to fail me in fact..

http://www.ramblersmalta.jointcomms.com/press.htm

[Conchiolin]

My good god! I don't know wether it was started deliberately but i can tell you that some people enjoy watching whole fields of grass on fire. Just 2 years ago my gran had this very very old carob tree. (kienet taghmel naqra gulepp......tal-genn). One day she goes there and finds nothing but a mass of carbon.

Yes burnt fields, garigues even trees are unfortunately becoming to common a site today. I can tell you not only the flora is affected by these acts or (mishaps!)<----(yeah right!).

Yes one day i shall have to write a huge book dedicated only to fauna.

10q wolf and pine!

[wolf]

personally I do not think these are "accidental" fires - these are started deliberately most probably by either pranksters or people who may have a grudge against.....what really ?
this phenomenon occurs on bigger scale say in portugal and italy so i suppose we have to have one or two sickos with their version of "forest fires"

makes me sick really

[RB]

Thankfully fires are not as bad as one might imagine, in fact some ecosystems depend of fire, and what we have already is shaped by fire. In fact Cistsus sp. depend on fire for successful propagation.

Without fire, there would be less variety of habitats. Of course everything in moderation...

As to the cause of these fires, simple. Many of these fires are started by hunters, so that they can see rabbits better.

OK... over to you now!

RB

[Conchiolin]

I know thankfully you're not a hunter Mr.RB not exactly for rabbits but for quails so that they cannot settle in the vegetation and hide.

[MWP admin]

Conch:
The delphinium is found on our website (search on the violet pics!) and the link is here:
http://www.maltawildplants.com/RANU/Del ... ratum.html


Pine:
No book, but a website instead . I invite you and everyone to share pics of insects, fungi and animals from the maltese islands. All copyright reserved to the photographer. Conch is already working on this. More on this in October.


Wolf / RB / Conch:
It is difficult to say if accidental or intentional, becasue for example rounded glass can act as a lens and cause fire. Good job in reporting the event on the ramblers site. We are genuinely revealing what is going on our islands perhaps something will move in favour to environment some day.

RB:
In some case fire is good to vegetation, while in other cases is not good, depending to what species where present in the burnt patch. For example if there was a lot of Galactites tometosa burnt away, several heat-resistant bulbous plants and seeds would get rid of the competition, but what if there was non fire-tolerant rare species?! In general I would prefer the do-not-disturb-nature idea.
Certainly, residential fauna would have preferred no fire at all.

[jonagius]

Hi people,

I am new to this forum, and my speciality is lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) both from Malta and the rest of Europe and North Africa.

The moth pictured by Conchiolin is a Hellula undalis, a very common species that flies during the summer. The larvae feeds on plants from the Cruciferae family.

Jonathan

[MWP admin]

Thanks alot - pleased to have you aboard with us!