Two Nightshades and an Insect Without a Name

On the Loma del Halcón, Michel Salas found what the dry scrubland keeps without announcing itself: two species of the same genus growing among the leaf litter and bare earth, each speaking its own language of color. The white-flowered one turned out to be Solanum torvum; the purple-flowered, Solanum subinerme. Both rooted in arid ground, both with leaves riddled by insects that fed and moved on without leaving a name. The six photographs Michel brought back say more than words managed to that day. In one of them, resting on the small green fruits of Solanum torvum, sits an insect of reddish and orange hues that still has no identification in our records. It is there, motionless, as if waiting for someone to give it the name it deserves. That detail remains open. For now, the Loma del Halcón adds two documented nightshades and a six-legged mystery that the team will have to untangle on the next outing.