Malva sylvestris and Rhagonycha fulva duo

Every year around this time the lawns that are not constantly mowed fill up with spring blooming flowers, herbs and other weeds. And that of course attracts all kinds of insects that will feed on them or lay their eggs so the larva has something to eat too.

This red nasty fella is called Rhagonycha fulva or in easier words common red soldier beetle. It is common throughout Europe and I managed to find it on two types of plants.

Adults feed on aphids, and also eat pollen and nectar. Larvae prey on ground-dwelling invertebrates, such as slugs and snails, and live at the base of long grasses. The adults, which are active between the months of June and August, spend much of their short lives mating and can often be seen in pairs.
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This was was obviously feeding on the flower. You can see the tiny bits of pollen on the wings. A little paradise for them as I found many of them in a single plant. Multiply that my dozens of Malva bushes that grew along the road and you get hundreds of creepy little devils :p





The second time I saw the on different type of flower and later in a year. The female was still busy feeding, the male was doing everything to disturb her.

The flower you see here is Malva sylvestris. A common weed I would say that will grow to quite large size with big green leaves stems over 1m tall. I see it mostly along the roads on very sunny spots.





The blooming time starts around March and lasts till early fall so all the insects have plenty of time to eat and breed. The flowers will open gradually along the stem also constantly producing seeds (the seeds have very cool shape by the way, as a kid I though they were tiny bugs hidden in a plant :p. You know how some small caterpillars can curl up to a nice little circle? That's how they look like).





Fun fact: The plant is very much edible not only for bugs. The leaves are flowers are often used in teas.
It is quite often used in cosmetics as well.
Such a practical weed :)

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_{Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.}