KÄINA, ESTONIA–This is a shout-out to our Wooster Geology colleagues currently working on the barren volcanic island of Iceland. We thought they might want a break from the bleak expanses of black basalt for a little color of wildlife from Estonia. The creature above, of course, is a grasshopper we found in our quarry today.
This colorful moth seems to specialize in the nectar of a common thistle here. It is a Six-Spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae).
A native bee on a daisy.
And delicious wild strawberries every day!
did you really take those photos? impressive!
Thanks, Susan. The trick is to throw out the 99% of photographs that don’t work!
Great photos, Mark. Let me know if you discover what that moth is; I took pictures of the same one in Saaremaa (but it was on yellow flowers there)!
Oh, I see that you did put it in; I guess it pays to read captions.
Thanks, Graham!
Thanks for the colorful images, but I think you’ll find that Iceland’s wildlflowers are equally as beautiful and the juxtaposition against the black basalt is much more dramatic!