Life on the Prairie

Although my favorite milkweed plant resident is the monarch caterpillar (I’m fascinated with monarchs all the way around!), I can’t help being amazed by the variety of critters found on and around milkweed plants. On an evening stroll through the local prairie, I came across these guys team-munching a milkweed leaf. I have not been able to confirm this anywhere as of yet, but I’m suspicious that they are an early stage of the milkweed tussock moth. Later in the summer the milkweed tussock moth caterpillars are in their more familiar form and images of them can be found quite easily on the internet. I’m guessing that these are them though because they are noted for being social feeders (and even when larger are found in groups team-munching milkweed, as seen here on my Flickr site). In any case, for a poisonous plant, the traffic on and around milkweeds is quite impressive. I’ll have more posts on milkweed coming.

Having worn glasses from sixth grade on up (including those tumultous Jr. High years), I’ve certainly heard the term four-eyes. What I didn’t know was that there really are critters with four eyes in abundant numbers on the local prairie. In checking to verify that what I was looking at was indeed a red milkweed beetle, I found that the name of the Genus is “Tetraopes” which means “four eyes” and unlike my experience during Jr. High, this name was not given to be mean but because the antennae of these beetles actually divide each eye in two. In the picture you can see a black spot above and below each antenna. Those are its eyes!

Every time I go to the prairie I see something new (and that, by the way, is what will be fueling this blog). Yesterday on an early morning walk I was surprised to find a harvestman (”daddy long legs”) eating a dead honeybee. I don’t recall ever having come across a harvestman in the process of enjoying a meal, and though of course they’re such an easily identifiable creature, I’d never really given any thought to what they eat. I guess I’d always assumed they ate plants, living or dead. A minute’s worth of research reveals otherwise, of course, but I hadn’t invested the minute. Apparently many species of harvestmen (and there are over 6,300 species of them according to Wikipedia) actually are predators while others are scavengers, possibly eating “fresh” when they can get it. It seems doubtful to me that the one I observed had overcome a honeybee, unless possibly it was “spent” and wandering about the leaf on its last legs or something.

As I observed, a small beetle chanced to come by and disturb the harvestman. The harvestman’s long legs demonstrated their utility as it had no problem raising up with the bee and moving to another spot to dine in peace. It reminded me of a gantry crane picking up its heavy load and moving off with it.