Tag: santa monica mountains

escondido

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Escondido Falls in Malibu became insta-famous during Covid, at which point I stopped hiking there. Today was my first visit in at least seven years; I thought maybe the trend had passed and we’d have the place to ourselves on a weekday morning. But no, it was crowded with young selfie-takers. There wasn’t a huge amount of trash — I packed out half a dozen bottles and as many foil wrappers — so that was gratifying. And I guess it’s good that young people are out in nature, right? But it’ll probably be another seven years before I go back there. I prefer the roads less travelled.

Diabrotica undecimpunctata

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Diabrotica undecimpunctata
diabrotica

I used to own a shirt covered in green beetles with black spots. Here’s me wearing it back in 2017 (aside: this was taken at our old place, that burned down in the Palisades Fire of 2025. Gah I miss it.) One day someone at work told me that my shirt beetles were Diabrotica, a major agricultural pest. It stuck in my head, because I thought “Diabolical Diabrotica”.

These guys cause damage to crops in the larval and adult stages of their life cycle. Larvae feed on the roots of the emerging plants, and the adult beetles eat the flowers, leaves, stems, and fruits of over fifty different types of crops and wild plants, including corn, peanuts, beans, apples, cherries, clovers, lettuce, potatoes and, yes, cucumbers. The beetles can also spread diseases such as bacterial wilt and mosaic virus.

Who eats them? Wolf spiders!

goat buttes

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IMG_2099

Marley Peifer and I hung out at Malibu Creek State Park for the day, geeking out on plants, rocks, reptiles, bryophytes, fungi, birds, insects and water. We also talked a little eco-philosophy and discussed different definitions of biodiversity.

Calochortus catalinae

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Calochortus catalinae

The Santa Catalina mariposa lily is endemic to Southern California. It is native along the coastline in grasslands and open chaparral and woodlands habitats, especially on the Channel Islands and in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is considered rare due to habitat loss, so I am always happy to encounter it in the wild.