July 2015 ~ We are having a lovely visit in the mountains of central Japan this week. We came to Japan to scuba dive and were fortunate enough to have time for a side trip to the Joshinetsu Highland National Park, located about a half-hour drive from the Kosatsu Onsen (mineral springs) where we are staying. The fields are full of flowers, mainly yellow daylilies. It didn’t take me long to find some of my favorite bugs: aphids!
A nice moth on a blossom:
More bugs:
This was the first time I had seen such oddly shaped galls on leaves. Instead of the round galls I’m used to, these were tall and pointed. Galls are created by the plant in response to tiny midges that feed on the plant’s leaves. The midges live and reproduce in these structures:
There were loads of dragonflies zooming around; we leave you with a head-on look:
