northeast-flora-and-fauna

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: I don't think these insects feel neighborly towards one another, though there may b...

These are almost certainly invasive  Oleander Aphids (aka Milkweed Aphids) meeting their worst nightmare, a ladybug . Our milkweeds are hosts for lots of native insects (Monarch Butterflies being the most famous), but these non-native aphids not only crowd out the natives but also seem to do more damage to the milkweeds. Fortunately for us, ladybugs in particular consider aphids to be delicious. (Although I think ladybugs can eat a lot of aphids, it looks like this milkweed has more aphids than this ladybug will be able to eat.) There are a lot of similar-looking ladybugs; this one might be yet another non-native species, the Seven-spotted Ladybug . It sounds like they were intentionally introduced to the US specifically to control plant-eating insects, though as they out-compete native insects it's unclear whether they're more of a benefit or a problem.