Natural History Natural History in the Heel of Italy: 1. Olive Groves 28 June 2019 Ian Alexander Ancient Olive Grove near Ostuni, Puglia. One tree here was measured at 1,400 years old. Mating Flower Beetles on Greater Pignut. The species has brown elytra, unlike the iridescent green elytra of the thick-kneed flower beetle familiar in northern Europe. The Olive Groves harbour an attractive flora of herbs and grasses, and a rich fauna of butterflies (here, Common Blue), grasshoppers, bugs and beetles. Birdlife includes Hoopoe, Serin, Swift, and Swallow and the occasional Kestrel, and plenty of Italian Sparrows. Scabious in Olive Grove Mullein Stone Grasshopper: this marvellously camouflaged insect is practically invisible unless it moves. Its bold disruptive coloration effectively breaks up its outline and misleads the eye about its shape and shadow. Fallen fruits of grasses and vetch Spirit of the Olive Tree? A gnarled olive trunk resembling an ancient face Ant-lion (Myrmeleontidae), another well-camouflaged insect. This is the adult; the larva lives in a burrow, where it traps ants in a conical pit by digging the sand away beneath them. Olive Grove pruning: neat rows of brash, and the occasional stack of logs. Ant Road across Olive Grove track Large Grasshopper rescued from swimming pool. I also saved a brown lizard but didn’t have the camera with me to record it. Painted Lady Scarlet Darter Limestone boulder handsomely lichened in orange, grey, black, and white Passenger moth, Dysgonia algira. It was easy to see when it moved but not at all badly camouflaged among the limestone blocks of the field wall. Spider-hunting wasp (Anoplius: Pompilidae) with much larger prey, which she dragged off to her burrow, paralysed but alive, for her young to live on until they pupate House Gecko on wall of old farmhouse (a Masseria) Italian Sparrow with food for nestlings, waiting for a moment to fly unobserved to the nest hole in the Masseria