Species Interactions

This week, my observations were a little more pressed for time than usual because of a lot of other things I had going on, but I was still able to find a few interactions.

The first thing I noticed was relatively easy to spot: I kneeled down to look at some Ivy (which I identified first and have continued to see all over Berkeley) and noticed a variety of insects right away. For example, I observed a little rollie pollie bug here on inat, but I also saw a spider who had made its web amongst the ivy leaves and a variety of tiny gnats buzzing around the whole time. Some of the ivy leaves were very damaged, and I was wondering if this was a result of all the bugs taking advantage of it or if its cause was something entirely unrelated (perhaps a fungus or plant disease).

My next interaction also involved some ivy, but this time, the ivy was doing the using rather than the being used. In this case, I found a tree that had ivy twining all over its trunk and even overtaking many of its branches to the point where it looked as if it could have been all one tree (if we didn't already know the ivy was its own plant). I was fascinated by the extent to which these two plants are able to coexist and wanted to snap a photo.

Lastly, I observed a butterfly pollinating some morning glory flowers. I'm really excited about this butterfly because I think there is a chance it came from the caterpillar I observed a few weeks ago, since I found it in the exact same place! The rich purple flowers initially caught my eye, and then I noticed they had also caught the attention of this butterfly!

Posted on Φεβρουάριος 28, 2013 0357 ΠΜ by maeganblansett