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Checkerspot butterfly on lantana.

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Insect Extravaganza
This September and the first week of October, 2008 I spent about three weeks watching several burroweeds, Isocoma tenuisecta, in my back yard while they bloomed. (I assumed they were burroweeds. I didn't plant them although, over the years, I have pruned them to remove spent blooms and improve their appearance.) I was first attracted by the number of bees visiting the blooms. As I watched the bees more closely I began to notice quite a few different kinds of flying insects and when I took off my glasses, got down on one knee, and really took a close look at one of the plants, I was surprised by all the insect activity. Far more variety than I'd ever encountered in one place.

Over the next couple of weeks I tried to stop by the burroweeds in the morning and evening to see what was happening in the insect world. Pretty soon I carried a camera with every visit to the plants and eventually I included a small pillow so I could get down on both knees to get to the insects' level and get that up close and personal contact.

At first I noticed the predominate flying insects including bees, flies, moths and butterflies. Then I began to notice some of the predators that were considerably more stealthy, limiting their movement, while they waited for their prey to get near enough that they could strike. This included the spiders, praying mantis, and assassin bugs. I figured the large praying mantis (there were at least five, possibly more) were the top of the food chain although they would certainly be susceptible to the lizards roaming under the shrubs and any birds that might find them.

Surprisingly the only mantis I saw succumb was one that was eaten from the inside out. Some sort of insect that produced small maggots managed to deposit eggs inside the mantis and the young eventually ate their way out. Somewhat gruesome for sure, but also interesting to encounter in the garden.

This mantis moved to a Blue Palo Verde tree trunk and sat there for two or three days until the maggots in its abdomen ate their way out.
After the parasites finished feeding this was all that was left of the mantis.

I must admit I became fascinated by all the insect activity on the burroweeds and probably spent far more time than I should observing, taking pictures and trying to figure out what many of the insects might be. I had two field guides from the National Audubon Society which were helpful for many of the insects. I also did lots of image searches on the internet, sometimes finding what I looked for, other times, too much information added to my bug confusion.

I certainly didn't catch every type of bug that visited the burroweeds in pictures. Some were too small and I couldn't get close enough with the camera lens I used. Some were too quick and would come and go before I could capture a picture. I know I missed one metalmark butterfly I'd never seen before and I had a Sphinx moth that wouldn't sit still. Others I just didn't see. Some of the small spiders were very good at hiding. One flying insect that I waited to land got snapped from the air by a mantis and I never did get a picture.

I also discovered my macro photography skills were not what they could be. I had an awful lot of bad, out of focus and no bug in the frame pictures. And on windy days I was lucky to get any useable pictures at all.

It's pretty obvious there are a lot of bugs in the garden. Some are beneficial, others detrimental. The good with the bad. You have to be willing to look for them and at the same time appreciate them for their role in the ecosystem whether they are permanent residents or only passing through.

Sure, I'm still at war with the mealy bugs in my greenhouse, the aphids, and squash vine borers in my vegetable garden. I'm wary of black widow spiders, scorpions and centipedes when I come across them and still cringe when I find a blood sucking conenose in my bed. But after my couple of weeks with the insects pictured below I think I can appreciate them quite a bit more. And you can be sure I'll be taking a close look at my blooming burroweeds next September to see what's visiting. (2008)


Reakirt's Blue, Hemiargus isola These small butterflies were regular visitors to the burroweed.	Palmer's Metalmark, Apodemia palmeria Besides the various bees these Metalmark butterflies seemed to visit daily while the burroweed flowered.	Metalmark butterfly. Only saw one of these little brown metalmarks during the last week of September.	Great Purple Hairstreak, Atlides halesus Like the Gray Hairstreak, the small butterfly moves the ends of the wings so it's difficult to distinguish which is the head end.

Gray Hairstreak, Strymon melinus Clever little butterfly moves the wing appendages emulating the insect's antenna so you have trouble deciding which end is up.	Snout. The long nose of the butterfly makes it easily identifiable The most common to visit the burroweed flowers was the American Snout, Libytheana carinenta.	Queen butterfly, Danaus gilippus	Progressive Bee fly. Another large fly that was easy to spot and photograph.

Honey bee. Bees, lots of different types of bees, worked for the pollen on the flower heads.	Green Metallic bee. A common site on the flower heads of the burroweed.	Bee fly. This large fly with the clear wing tips was pretty obvious when he showed up on the flower heads.	Bee fly. Big bee fly with intricate design in the wings.

Possibly a Tachinid fly. Looks like his hairs are standing on end.	Green Bottle fly.	Lacewing. Didn't see many lacewing. Did notice their single eggs on fine filaments on some of the blooms.	Unidentified moth. Notice the fin the wings make when closed.

Plume moth. Good thing these moths are small, otherwise they might be kind of frightening. Could you imagine one the size of a pigeon flying at you. Might make for a good horror movie.	Possibly a paper wasp. Two or three different kinds of wasps visited the plants	Either a Steel-blue Cricket Hunter wasp or a Blue Mud Dauber.	Thread-waisted wasp. These wasps were fairly common and quite active on the plants for a few days.

Potter or Mason wasp. You don't realize how many different colored wasps are present until you start photographing them and can compare their markings side by side.	Spotted Cucumber beetle, Diabrotica undecimpunctata	Mantis and a bee snack. I was watching this praying mantis as the bee flew past. In a split second the mantis captured it. There's a third insect in this photo I didn't notice at the time of the photograph. Look for its legs.	Beelicious. The mantis don't move around very much. They wait patiently often hanging down under the flowers until something comes within striking range.

Brown praying mantis. I never saw this mantis with any prey. He was smaller than the more seemingly common green mantis	Assassin bug. There were several of these on the plants and they all seemed to be dining on small flying insects. This one captured a large bee like insect. Other smaller flying insects then surrounded the prey.	Brown stink bug or soldier bug?	Green stink bug. There seemed to be various shades of this bug from dark green, to light green and a brownish color.

Unidentified bug. The bright red on its back made the small bug easy to spot when it visited the burroweed.	Unidentified bug. This little bug with the red rim liked to hide under the flowers.	Orb Weaver spider. I thought this spider was near the top of the food chain because he always seemed to have something new to eat. However the predator became the prey and was eaten by a mantis.	Unidentified spider. Saw only the dark legs under a bloom which contrasted nicely with the yellow. Closer examination exposed the whole spider.

Green Lynx spider. Colorful little spider I would have missed on a windy morning if it hadn't moved.	Unidentified spider. Hard to spot yellow spider on yellow flowers. One photograph and he was gone, hiding under the blooms.	Longhorn beetle. These beetles can come in a wide assortment of colors but usually easy identifiable because of the long antennae.	Longhorn beetles. The antennae were like whips moving through the air as these two had a close encounter. A third beetle was present but decided three was a crowd.

Unidentified beetle or weevil. There were many of these small beetle like creatures moving in and out of the blooms.	Green Stink bugs. As singles, these insects were fairly illusive as they hid between the flowers. Once they began to mate they were exhibitionists and easy to	Bird grasshopper, Schistocerca albolineata Colorful grasshopper was easy to spot although he was in the branches near the interior of the bush.	Grasshopper love. There was a lot of grasshopper piggyback riding although the females seemed more interested in dining.

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