The back yard is teeming with insect life these days. to my delight there is now practically a swarm of monarchs on the blue Eupatorium. When I make a small disturbance near them, a dozen or more will take to the air at once.
More dismaying there are at least four species of insect on the Mexican milkweed seedpods with which I am not familiar. One is a large beetle, most resembling the Labidomera clivicolis in my Audubon field guide, although the markings are a little different. There are also some extremely large red ants and a colony of some other kind of bright red insect, smaller than the ants. The latter two of these seem most interested in the seedpods, but the beetles are eating the leaves.
Where all this insect life comes from I have no idea. The milkweed we bought during the spring at Texas Discovery Gardens. Could the insects have been brought in with the plants that long ago and just now be making their appearance? Ordinarily I ignore insects but I don’t want our plants ravaged by something I’ve brought in. I am going to need a better field guide to identify them.
Comments (7)
The insects that are involved with the milkweed are part of a tight symbiotic relationship that works to each insect’s and plant’s advantage. Few animals can eat milkweed because its white juices are toxic. The reason all the insects that are associated with milkweed are red and black colored is to serve as warning to predators that they are inedible. Monarch butterflies and Milkweed beetles are two examples (the Viceroy butterfly mimics Monarchs… hence the delightful name “Viceroy”… to take advantage of the Monarch’s defenses). The milkweed itself is closely evolved with these creatures (so much so that the Monarch butterfly, over the eons, has evolved to migrate the vast distances that separate the two instances of milkweed in the north and in the south, in Mexico, as the milkweed plant moved with the changing continent) and sustains no harm when eaten by the insects. The only necessary result is that in late autumn the seed pods should be distributing seeds. The insects themselves, including the red ants, help in protecting these seeds.
Hi Bill, I was going to send this to you through e-mail, but there doesn’t seem to be any link to your e-mail address, so I am posting my question here: Could you please tell me how you coded your “some recent comments” sidebar setup? I’d like to include some automatic excerpt of people’s comments in my comments section, but don’t know how to achieve it. I’d much appreciate your advice…
good answer!!!! Thanks M.
Thanks for the information on insects, Miguel.
As for the “recent comments” code, I found it at this site:
http://www.scriptygoddess.com/archives/001030.php
Thanks Bill for the information. I’m going to take a look at the coding and see how to incorparate it into my site.
You’re welcome about the insect information. I may not know much about much else, but my nickname in high school (hated it when I was a teenager, love it now!) wasn’t Nature Boy for nothing! Insects and birds are my passion.
At first glance, I thought that was a ladybird beetle. While many of them eat aphids, a few eat plants.
The University of Texas Press should have a field guide to meet your need. At least most state universities make a point of issuing guidebooks to the state’s insects, particularly those which are pests.
You know what, Bill? That bug’s orange! It qualifies for the Ecotone topic!