orchids, once more

On first place a question: does anyone know at all what it is with that 'slime' or 'secretion' appearing on many grasses at this time of year? [(First I thought they only appear in the national park itself, but today I checked more thoroughly and found that this secretion also can be found elsewhere, though only in the lowlands I guess, I didn't see any in the Wienerwald, today.] (I even activated the comments function for this post only - and it will stay open till the first spam arrives.)

At first I thought it might be saliva from wild boars, but I've found it almost anywhere, no matter if there were any signs of boar activity around (which you can tell easily, most of the times, from earth dug up and from their dung). Or probably any other animal. But then this secretion many times occurs like with this blade of grass: just below their inflorescence so that it is difficult to imagine how it could have dropped there from above (and further, on lands and grass which looks relatively undisturbed). Also, it looks like it was left there for a purpose. Probably to mark a territory. Another possibility would be smaller insects depositing their eggs in this slime. Whatever - I have absolutely no idea what this is. And I desperately want to know. (By the way, what you see in the background are withering Orchis morio: there still are plenty around, but they all are fading very quickly now.)

The mystery is solved, many thanks to Felix Wesch (again!): slime like this is produced by Aphrophoridae, spittlebugs (Schaumzikaden) - their larvae live in the spittle and feed on the plants to which they are attached. So nothing out of the ordinary.

Here follow another spider ophrys; they came out a little bit after Orchis morio and probably may last for some time yet even though on some of them already one or two flowers (always the ones that blossomed first, so the lowest on the stalk) are withering too.

What is overtaking from Orchis morio are these, O. militaris (Military orchid - Helmknabenkraut), now this time really definitely them (while in the last orchid post I mistook a pink variety of O. morio for O. militaris). They are not rare in Lobau at all, but they do not form such huge colonies like O. morio - there's always some space between the specimens, or (as in this case) three to five O. militaris are standing in a group, but to other specimens there's a distance of a metre or even more.

Orchis militaris cannot compete with O. morio on levels of beauty, in my opinion; but O. ustulata can (Brand-Knabenkraut - Burnt orchid): it is certainly the most beautiful of our Lobau orchids - or more precisely, the ones I have seen yet. Very small and delicate, really striking in appearance. And quite rare compared to all the other orchids shown here already (but nevertheless not hard to find; they grow in all parts of Lobau, from the park-like upper regions down to the city limits of Vienna in Lower Lobau).