Insects Sharing Milkweeds

As I mentioned in a previous post, milkweed plants (like many native plants) have their own little communities, and it's not unusual to see insects sharing these plants. Here are a couple examples.

Here is a Red Milkweed Beetle sharing its milkweed with what are probably (it's difficult to ID these little guys) Oleander Aphids (above and to the left of the beetle), the former a beloved native insect and the latter a somewhat destructive invasive one. (Or perhaps I've got the wrong aphid - apparently there are other possibilities.)

July 28, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 148654785, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

And here's another picture, this one of a Monarch caterpillar sharing a milkweed with (presumably) more of those Oleander Aphids.

July 28, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve
Photo 148654667, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Notes:
  1. I don't think these insects feel neighborly towards one another, though there may be some relief that they're not sharing the milkweed with a predator.
  2. All these insects absorb some of the poisonous properties of the milkweed plants and are thus either poisonous or foul-tasting to most tetrapod predators (like birds).
  3. It's less clear what effect the poisons have on arthropods. Arthropods will eat them, though there are studies that show developmental/behavioral abnormalities in ladybeetles and spiders that eat aphids.


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