When I was taking one of several botany classes in the late 90s in our lab we had the dissecting microscopes out looking inside various flowers. In some were very tiny colored bugs which may have been mites. Or maybe something else. Aphids? Memory is a vague thing.
It might help for botanists to study entomology or arachnology. I knew graduate students studying fence lizards or spinner sharks that had to learn the invertebrates found eaten by or living on their thesis topic.
Tethyssays
I enjoy the crab spiders and how they manage to color coordinate with various flowers. Mine are generally yellow, though I’ve seen green and lavender/white too.
Tiny insects inside of flowers could be mites, or flower thrips. A thrip has a linear shape, and they bite. If you’re being bitten by an invisible insect, it’s often a thrip. Aphids are usually found on tender young stems and leaf tips, though there is a species that infests the roots and has a commensal relationship with ants.
zygopterasays
Great photo! What a beautiful spider.
Pierce R. Butlersays
From the headline, I’d thought our esteemed host was announcing a new grandchild.
Nice picture! Is this on a rhododendron?
Is that a white banded crab spider?
When I was taking one of several botany classes in the late 90s in our lab we had the dissecting microscopes out looking inside various flowers. In some were very tiny colored bugs which may have been mites. Or maybe something else. Aphids? Memory is a vague thing.
It might help for botanists to study entomology or arachnology. I knew graduate students studying fence lizards or spinner sharks that had to learn the invertebrates found eaten by or living on their thesis topic.
I enjoy the crab spiders and how they manage to color coordinate with various flowers. Mine are generally yellow, though I’ve seen green and lavender/white too.
Tiny insects inside of flowers could be mites, or flower thrips. A thrip has a linear shape, and they bite. If you’re being bitten by an invisible insect, it’s often a thrip. Aphids are usually found on tender young stems and leaf tips, though there is a species that infests the roots and has a commensal relationship with ants.
Great photo! What a beautiful spider.
From the headline, I’d thought our esteemed host was announcing a new grandchild.