Life on the Prairie

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.