Gargara genistae
I observed at least seven Gargara genistae specimens on 2 Colutea arborescens bushes, 1-2m apart, bundling them in 2 observations, 1 for each host plant. Most likely there were more hoppers. The bushes are close to railroad trails, ruderal area.
Impressions:
- they are excellent flyers, fast and steady, more like bees, not erratic like Cicadellidae I observed
- nevertheless they are extremely reluctant to take off, sometimes circling around stems, sometimes running away instead
- all of them were on twigs/stems
- 1 specimen was attended by ant, it looked like it tried to milk it for honeydew and tried to defend it from me
Παρατηρήσεις
Φωτογραφίες / ήχοι
Παρατηρητής
sascha_nΠεριγραφή
on Colutea arborescens https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/176659779
pics show 4 specimens I think, there probably were more on that bush
Φωτογραφίες / ήχοι
Παρατηρητής
sascha_nΠεριγραφή
on Colutea arborescens https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/176665182
pics show 2 specimens, I saw 1 more
1 attended by an ant
Σχόλια
@gernotkunz @herbertnickel
Hi, I know they are not particularly rare, but I thought you might still want to take a quick look at these observations I made today. :)
Nice to see tham with the ants. Would be interesting to get the ant identified.
Observation for the ant added https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/176793570
After the original observation in Tempelhof.-Schöneberg I visited more locations with Colutea arborescens bushes looking for more Gargara genistae, in Marzahn-Hellersdorf and Pankow.
In Marzahn-Hellersdorf I made this observation of Gargara genistae (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177873184), attended by ant (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177873181).
In Pankow I made Gargara genistae observations on 4 Colutea arborescens bushes:
bush 1:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177882259 attended by ant https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1778822641
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177967785 copulating, or at least it looks they were about to
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177967786
on bush 2 there were many attending ants (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177974150), up to 4 or 5 on a twig with 1 hopper
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177974147
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177975245
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/177975746
bush 3, not attended:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178021215
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178021217
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178021219
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178021221
bush 4
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178037098
At this point I have found Gargara genistae on all Colutea arborescens bushes I visited, except for 3 bushes in Pankow - one bush was in a bad condition, completely overshadowed by an elm, and two bushes were at the roadside.
In conclusion, it can be said that Gargara genistae is as common as it can be in Berlin, considering the host plant it is named after, scientifically and in German, does not grow here. (joking, the same could be said about Synophropsis lauri)
Added an observation of Gargara genistae (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178458425) on host plant Melilotus albus
(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178458428), attended by an ant (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178458427).
One more Gargara genistae https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/178567922 on one more Colutea arborescens bush added. There actually was a group of 8 bushes, but it was too sultry to search them all. :)
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