Tujunga Wash February 17, 2021

I checked out this area a few days ago and noticed there was a lot of brittle bush in bloom so I decided to head over again to do an insect survey. I basically spent a couple of hours combing the plants and flowers for insects. The habitat in this area can generally be described as disturbed. A fire went thru the area a few years ago and there is still much evidence of it...burned logs, stunted trees and lots of debris. There are also remnants of a concrete slab or possible road there thru which plants are gradually breaking through, The area is probably one of the least appealing areas I have visited. However it has a couple of things going for it. One, there is a creek running through there and it still has water. Two, there are very few people there. The most common visitors are people on horseback as there are a few stables nearby.

My efforts were fairly well rewarded. I found about 18 species of insects and I definitely did not capture everything I saw as there were a few species that eluded me. I also did not take photos of the numerous honeybees as I had observed and noted them in my previous visit. While I didn’t find anything super spectacular, I did find a couple of new species including the chrysanthemum lace bug that I’ve seen photos of many times but have never run into. Unfortunately I didn’t get the best photo so I will have to head back for a better one. I also found this very attractive trupanea fly that I’ve included here.

Considering how dry it has been and how early in the year it is, I think these were pretty good results.

Posted on February 19, 2021 01:59 AM by naturephotosuze naturephotosuze

Observations

Photos / Sounds

Observer

naturephotosuze

Date

February 17, 2021 01:16 PM PST

Description

Tujunga Wash
Beautiful fly

Photos / Sounds

What

Chrysanthemum Lace Bug (Corythucha marmorata)

Observer

naturephotosuze

Date

February 17, 2021 03:10 PM PST

Description

Tujunga Wash
All of these were on a brittlebush plant next to the road

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