Day 301: Whatever they are, they would appear to be a primary pollinator for Heterotheca oregona. These little beetles are roughly 1-1.5 mm long, and they were abundantly present on every open flower when Joe and I examined the Heterotheca patch on Tuesday. Our actual mission was not to find beetles, but to explore for other occurrences of Mount Rainier National Park's "newest" Damn Yellow Daisy by wading the river and searching the gravel bars on the opposite side. We were successful, but the results were not as revelatory as we would have liked. We found only two more specimens, both located directly across from the east-side patch, although while we were searching, we turned up another "non-Biek" location for Sibbaldia procumbens with a single specimen. As for the beetles pollinating Heterotheca, we're still trying to identify them.
No comments:
Post a Comment