northeast-flora-and-fauna

I saw small insects scurrying around on some flowers that I believe are Black Diabroticas . At least they look similar, and iNaturalist shows no similar insects with which they're easily confused. This is a better look at them than you'd get from the naked eye; I used the magnification lens I add to my camera. I'm not sure I would have noticed a single one, but when a bunch of them are on a flower they can get your attention. I didn't see articles about them out on the web, so I don't have a lot of information about them. They're considered leaf beetles. I assume most of their relatives eat leaves, and while these guys seemed to be eating flower petals, petals are considered modified leaves. (Don't confused these guys with pollinators that help plants; these insects were eating it.) Plants in the aster (aka daisy aka sunflower) family are on their menu. Their closest relatives (same genus) is a larger, more colorful beetle generally considered to be agricul...

Here's one of my favorite beetles, the Dogbane Leaf Beetle . If you like shiny things, you're going to love Dogbane Leaf Beetles. They're almost like jewelry for plants. These guys are one of those insects that will feed on both dogbanes and milkweeds; in fact I suspect this little fella is probably on a Common Milkweed. (The leaves look a little large for a dogbane.) Both dogbane and milkweed (two types of plants in the  Apocynaceae family ) have a sticky, poisonous latex-ish substance you can see if you break a leaf. Many insects that eat these plants end up being poisonous, or at least foul-tasting, to eat. And most of these signal their poisonousness to potential predators by flaunting red/orange coloring (e.g. Monarch Butterflies, Large and Small Milkweed Bugs). It's likely that the Dogbane Leaf Beetle accomplishes the same thing with its shininess - predators are able to distinguish them from tastier, more nutritious insects. They do look a little like an invasive...