Orange, black, and yellow

Click for greater clarity.

You’ve seen several pictures in this blog of Tetraneuris linearifolia, known as a four-nerve daisy. When a flower head of this species matures, the central disk typically gradually bulges upward while the ray flowers fold down, lose much of their yellow, and take on a papery appearance. Whether this beetle nymph was taking any advantage of the four-nerve daisy other than as a place to perch, I don’t know. I also don’t know if the insect is still alive today, exactly a year after I photographed it on April 9, 2012, on the right-of-way beneath the large power lines that cross a portion of my Great Hills neighborhood in Austin.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman