Favoritos de merav

On Coast Live Oak

Seen during the Coyote Creek Visitor Center July 2024 Bioblitz.

Project page here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/coyote-creek-visitor-center-july-2024-bioblitz

Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful website: https://www.keepcoyotecreekbeautiful.org/

Bioblitz.club website: https://www.bioblitz.club/events

All of my observations from this bioblitz:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&project_id=coyote-creek-visitor-center-july-2024-bioblitz&user_id=joemdo

Diplacus aurantiacus host. Attempting to show how the ovary or seed pod is modified by the fly, since there seems to be a question about it being a true gall. First image has an ungalled seed pod, second a freshly galled, and third a mature gall, with sepals removed. In the galled flowers the corolla, stamina and stigma rarely develop. R. Gagné confirmed to genus in a personal email the reared adults, exuviae and gall I sent him (see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/221183923).

He sent me the following in a key (unpublished?) for Diplacus:

2b Swollen, aborted flower buds ……………………… Asphondylia sp.
Galls are 2.5-3 cm long and polythalamous with numerous individual larval chambers spread throughout the arrested floral parts. The Asphondylia from this gall is distinct from A. diplaci. Host: D. aurantiacus. Distr.: California.

For another comparison, see https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134953172.

I found this male Mosquito standing on the wall of a container containing a few inches of stagnant, putrid rainwater. The container used to be a pool waterfall feature, but it broke years ago and the pipes at the bottom became clogged.

I caught and killed it.

Photos 1 and 3 had an Auto White Balance applied to it in Photoshop. Photo 3 was also brightened. Photos 4-6 were sharpened and brightened.