red milkweed beetle — 2016 — The 21st Century Matriarch

Warm mornings are popular times to photograph mating bugs. I happened upon three when I was really looking for other things.

These Japanese Beetles were on a blazing star next to the milkweed were the tussock moth caterpillars were my primary subjects. The Japanese beetle is an invasive species – and damages a lot of plants. The green and bronze iridescence of the adult forms do a have a beauty all their own….if only we had some predators to keep them in check.

The milkweed bugs seems to be everywhere – even on plants other than milkweeds. These two were mating but there were others just enjoying the flowers. They are seed eaters and the huge numbers of earlier instars will be seen on developing milkweed seed pods soon.

Red milkweed beetles are interesting to watch because their antennae are so long and – when they are not mating – they tend to move around the plant a lot. They vary in color from orange to red.

The most interesting thing about them is that each eye is bisected by an antenna!

The day after I volunteered at Belmont – I was at the other Howard County Conservancy location - Mt. Pleasant – for the same activity. The situation was easier because I had more assistants and the day was not quite as hot. It was harder because there were 15+ more campers (3 groups instead of 2). I started out with a short loop hike before the first group – just to check out what might be interesting topics. I focused on a stand of milkweed after I noticed a smallish Monarch caterpillar. It was the only one I saw on any of the plants but one is better than none!

There were very active red milkweed beetles – mating and foraging.

There were aphids too.

I took fewer pictures with the campers since the groups all had 15 children. The two youngest groups needed a lot of attention. With the oldest group – ages 9-12 – more of the campers had some experience with cameras and were more independent taking pictures so I took some pictures of my own. My favorites were of ripening blackberries,