Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Geranium richardsonii

This was another thing that I saw on 27 July 2013, when a group of us did a Bioblitz along the E side of the Perrenoud WIldlife Reserve, NW of Calgary. A tiny Crab Spider, sitting on a Richardson's Geranium wildflower. "Crab spider is a common name applied loosely to many species of spiders, but most nearly consistently to members of the family Thomisidae. Among the Thomisidae it refers most often to the familiar species of "flower crab spiders", though not all members of the family are limited to ambush hunting in flowers. Thomisidae do not build webs to trap prey, though all of them produce silk for drop lines and sundry reproductive purposes; some are wandering hunters and the most widely known are ambush predators. Some species sit on or beside flowers or fruit, where they grab visiting insects. Individuals of some species, such as Misumena vatia (which I believe is shown n my photo), are able to change color over a period of some days, to match the flower on which they are sitting. Some species frequent promising positions among leaves or bark, where they await prey, and some of them will sit in the open, where they are startlingly good mimics of bird droppings. However, note that these members of the family Thomisidae are not to be confused with the spiders that generally are called bird dropping spiders, not all of which are close relatives of crab spiders.... The spiders of Thomisidae are not known to be harmful to humans." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_spider en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geranium_richardsonii "In 1980, George Emil Perrenoud donated this land to the Alberta Sport, Recreation, Parks and Wildlife Foundation for the purpose of a wilderness park for the benefit of the residents of the Province of Alberta." www.asrpwf.ca/media/53811/perrenoud.pdf www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9399782073

We came across these very tiny, mating Harlequin Bugs in the southern part of the Cross Conservation Area recently. They are on a Wild White Geranium, also known as a Richardson's Geranium. The four photos I've just uploaded this evening seem rather pale and lifeless - I'm using my old monitor attached to my new computer (set up today), but I don't know if this has resulted in my images being altered or not.

I haven't identified this tiny beetle yet. Found and photographed at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on July 8th, when I went looking for mushrooms. It was such a windy day and all the trees were bending and creaking, so I only searched the area by the parking lot. Not a mushroom to be found, but I was happy to find this beetle. The Richardson's Geranium flower is maybe an inch across, so the beetle was only very small.

I always like the veiny details and the hairy centre of the Wild White Geranium wildflower. Seen this morning on a walk in Fish Creek Park, in hot weather! You can eat the leaves of this plant and they can be added to soups and salads.