A Shiny Beetle and Friend in Your Garden and the Wild

Twice-stabbed Lady Beetle (Chilocorus stigma)

Twice-Stabbed Lady Beetles are are hungry, voracious predators that have very strong chewing mouthparts that enable them to chew through the armor covering of many scale insects, which are parasites on plants. This is why Lady Beetles are welcome in the garden.

But why the red spots on a shiny black body? The red and black coloring is likely an advertisement to potential predators that this bug may taste very bad or may even be toxic. In fact, these bugs are known to emit a repulsive smell from their legs. Warning coloration such as this is common in nature and is referred to as aposematic coloration. Think bees and wasps and even the black and white stripes of a skunk! The major predators of these beetles would be small birds and lizards. Here’s your chance to do some observational field ecology and gather some data on the warning coloration hypothesis.

Conchuela Stinkbug on Silver Bluestem

Conchuela Stinkbug (Chlorochroa ligata)

A Conchuela Stinkbug on a flowering branch of Silver Bluestem grass. I have been trying to get a decent photo of this stinkbug for the last week or so at Lake Kirby. Getting a good photo is difficult because the bug is very dark colored and the background is usually much lighter, but my photos turned out okay this time. Just one of the challenges of natural history photography in the field on a sunny day!

Silver Bluestem panicle or flowering head (Bothriochloa laguroides)

The Bluestem flowering head or panicle is attractive to me even though many landowners only see this plant as an invader species. It’s very common on roadsides all throughout Texas this time of the year.

Bluestem plant and habitat

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

Common Whitetail Dragonfly along the south section of the new hiking trail this weekend at Lake Kirby. You might wonder why this common name if there is no white tail? The explanation is that you are seeing the female here and it’s the males that have the prominent white tail. I did see males in the area but none would pose for a photo! Whitetails are among the most common dragonflies in Texas. The adult form is the dragonfly you see flying around, usually over water. However, dragonflies spend most of their lifetime in the water as immature nymphs (kind of the same as the caterpillar is to the adult butterfly). Dragonfly nymphs are voracious predators and eat worms, mosquito larvae, and tiny fish. The nymph will eventually crawl out of the water and sheds its skin to become an adult.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly, female. Plathemis lydia

Yellow Woolly Bear Caterpillar

Yellow Woolly Bear caterpillar on gravel near the lake shore. As an adult it is known as a Virginia Tiger Moth. The caterpillars feed mostly on low growing plant leaves and are known to “skeletonize” by eating the soft tissue parts of the leaf and leaving only the thick veins or skeleton. What good are moths, other than being attracted to your porch lights? The caterpillars are a major food source for adult songbirds and their nestlings. The adult moth in flight is a food source for many species of bats that feed only while flying. Birds, such as swallows and nighthawks, that feed solely on the wing, depend on them for food. Some moths are nectar feeders and help pollinate flowers. Moths are pretty important!

Caterpillar image by #DoctorBot and adult moth image copyright Chuck Sexton. #LakeKirby