Nice shot. "Bugs" can be tough to shoot. Even when they don't move around a lot, they're hard to get in consistent focus.
White Rabbit (White Rabbit) http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html
Crudely Wrott · 27 October 2008
These critters are really something. I've been looking at them for many years and they are as fascinating as ever. I used to watch them as the fattened up on milkweed and then go and take a couple home just as pupation had begun. Watching that chrysalis become clear and seeing the folded wings inside informed me as a boy about the mutability of life, and of becoming.
Not to mention the butterfly's migration. Thousands of miles! Made out of a straw and a whisper! (And inwardly some pretty stern stuff.) And don't forget the gold embellishments on the pupal case.
Don't ignore the food, though. I discovered something remarkable about the blossoms of milkweed several years ago while spending time with a camera and flowers in Wyoming. I chanced upon a stand of milkweed where the blossoms showed signs of pollination and were just beginning to wither. I think it was Common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, but I could be wrong. Here is a picture of the flower head earlier in the season than when I saw it-- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Common_milkweed-tracy.jpg
Later in the season there are more full blossoms and they crowd each other closely, their petals sloping outward, away from the center of the head. The lighter colored sepals below slope slightly inward, toward the center. As these elements crowd each other, the spaces in between them become narrow, tapered slots, just a few millimeters wide at the big end. These slots can function well at trapping and holding long, thin things; like the legs of insects. Their effectiveness is enhance by the slow contraction of the flowers as their supply of fluid is restricted. The slots shrink!
Apologies for no picture (saved on floppies that got away) but these flower had caught honey bees, beetles of several types, flies and other bugs by snagging their legs between these gradually converging parts. It was a macabre and somehow solemn sight to see these flowers clutching dessicated and scavenged corpses. I wonder if the plant realizes any benefit from the quiescent bits of chitin it snags. Does anyone know?
But, hey. How 'bout them Monarchs?
Henry J · 27 October 2008
DS | October 27, 2008 8:14 PM | Reply
Sorry Henry, but the Monarch belongs to the family Danaidae. The Viceroy belongs to the family Nymphalidae. But it’s still a butterfly!
Does http://tolweb.org/Danaus_plexippus/76926 have something incorrect? All I did was search for the page for Monarch, then followed the "containing group" links up a few steps. Is this a traditional classification vs. cladistics issue?
--
Danaus plexippus - The Monarch Butterfly
Containing group: Danaus
Containing group: Danaini - Milkweed Butterflies
Containing group: Danainae
Containing group: Nymphalidae
--
Limenitis archippus - The Viceroy Butterfly
Containing group: Limenitis
Containing group: Limenitidini
Containing group: Limenitidinae
Containing group: Nymphalidae
--
Containing group: Papilionoidea - True Butterflies
On a side note, how on Earth does one know how to pronounce all those weird clade names, many of which are so much like each other that they're bound to confuse people?
Henry
Crudely Wrott said:
Made out of a straw and a whisper! (And inwardly some pretty stern stuff.)
Monarch butterflies are extremely sturdy butterflies, as they are apparently able to withstand a high degree of abuse from would-be predators, such as being repeatedly pecked at by a blue jay. After all, what good is being a noxious animal if a predator has to chew it to pieces before realizing that it's not good to eat?
One day, my cat, Bobby, had caught a monarch, and was carrying it in his mouth. I made him spit it out so I could see it, and I found out it was still alive, whereupon it began flapping its wings, and, despite having been carried around in my cat's mouth, flew out of my hand and 20 feet across my backyard. It took a little breather while Bobby raced to reclaim his prize. But, before he could pounce on it again, it then flew up and away, never to be seen again.
Crudely Wrott · 28 October 2008
Stanton reports
"But, before he [the cat] could pounce on it again, it [the butterfly] then flew up and away, never to be seen again."
Yes. That is the stern stuff. Or the clever stuff. Or the stuff that works long enough to make many babies. The stuff that works.
DS · 28 October 2008
Henry,
This may just be one of those lumpers/splitters issues. My information comes from The Study of Insects by Borror and Delong, long considered to be the authority for entomology. Anyway, it's still a butterfly.
Crudely Wrott wrote: Here is a picture of the flower head earlier in the season than when I saw it-- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Common_milkweed-tracy.jpg ... It was a macabre and somehow solemn sight to see these flowers clutching dessicated and scavenged corpses.
I notice the flower head is swarming with ants (look closely). Are they feeding on pollen to begin with, and later on the trapped critters?
Turban Joe Balasootoe said:
Butterflies
Lightning Bugs
Spiders
are "word made flesh." But cats are, too,
per Stanton.
It's the other way around, actually, in that a cat, butterfly, firefly, or spider remain a cat, butterfly, firefly, or spider whether or not some group of humans have gotten around to formulating a name.
Turban Joe Balasootoe · 28 October 2008
Stanton:
Are you always this much fun?
Turban Joe
Crudely Wrott · 28 October 2008
Paul Burnett said:
Crudely Wrott wrote: Here is a picture of the flower head earlier in the season than when I saw it-- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Common_milkweed-tracy.jpg ... It was a macabre and somehow solemn sight to see these flowers clutching dessicated and scavenged corpses.
I notice the flower head is swarming with ants (look closely). Are they feeding on pollen to begin with, and later on the trapped critters?
Hello, Paul. The flower heads in the picture still contain blossoms, the round, compact structures below the flowers that are shown open. The individual blossoms on the flower heads I saw, later in the season, had no unopened blossoms and the flowers were crowded very closely together. Like mirrors on a disco ball. The heads appeared quite spherical.
Interestingly, these also had ants scampering about on them. Perhaps they were attracted to the captured insects or maybe they just do that.
NB. A small portion of the doomed bugs were ants.
Crudely Wrott · 28 October 2008
Doh!
As for the ants in the picture I linked to, they might be feeding on something the milkweed provides, possibly in return for the ants deterring certain insect pests. Or they could be feeding from those pests. Like ants and aphids. Aphids are sometimes called "antcows" because the ants "milk" them. (Unlike lady bugs, which enjoy the taste of aphids.) Or they may have some other business.
Many scenarios exist between plants and insects and I am not sure just what the ants do on the milkweed. But there they are.
One of us will probably look it up before long. ;-)
Apologies for no picture (saved on floppies that got away) but these flower had caught honey bees, beetles of several types, flies and other bugs by snagging their legs between these gradually converging parts. It was a macabre and somehow solemn sight to see these flowers clutching dessicated and scavenged corpses. I wonder if the plant realizes any benefit from the quiescent bits of chitin it snags. Does anyone know?
Now that's interesting. I've not noticed it, but that's probably me and not what's going on in the flowers. We keep a large patch of milkweeds up on the north end specifically for the Monarchs, so I'll look more closely next year.
18 Comments
Henry J · 27 October 2008
But it's still just a Nymphalidae!!111!one!!
Dave Wisker · 27 October 2008
A truly beautiful organism, at every stage in its life-cycle.
DS · 27 October 2008
Sorry Henry, but the Monarch belongs to the family Danaidae. The Viceroy belongs to the family Nymphalidae. But it's still a butterfly!
iml8 · 27 October 2008
Nice shot. "Bugs" can be tough to shoot. Even when they don't move around a lot,
they're hard to get in consistent focus.
White Rabbit (White Rabbit) http://www.vectorsite.net/gblog.html
Crudely Wrott · 27 October 2008
These critters are really something. I've been looking at them for many years and they are as fascinating as ever. I used to watch them as the fattened up on milkweed and then go and take a couple home just as pupation had begun. Watching that chrysalis become clear and seeing the folded wings inside informed me as a boy about the mutability of life, and of becoming.
Not to mention the butterfly's migration. Thousands of miles! Made out of a straw and a whisper! (And inwardly some pretty stern stuff.) And don't forget the gold embellishments on the pupal case.
Don't ignore the food, though. I discovered something remarkable about the blossoms of milkweed several years ago while spending time with a camera and flowers in Wyoming. I chanced upon a stand of milkweed where the blossoms showed signs of pollination and were just beginning to wither. I think it was Common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, but I could be wrong. Here is a picture of the flower head earlier in the season than when I saw it-- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Common_milkweed-tracy.jpg
Later in the season there are more full blossoms and they crowd each other closely, their petals sloping outward, away from the center of the head. The lighter colored sepals below slope slightly inward, toward the center. As these elements crowd each other, the spaces in between them become narrow, tapered slots, just a few millimeters wide at the big end. These slots can function well at trapping and holding long, thin things; like the legs of insects. Their effectiveness is enhance by the slow contraction of the flowers as their supply of fluid is restricted. The slots shrink!
Apologies for no picture (saved on floppies that got away) but these flower had caught honey bees, beetles of several types, flies and other bugs by snagging their legs between these gradually converging parts. It was a macabre and somehow solemn sight to see these flowers clutching dessicated and scavenged corpses. I wonder if the plant realizes any benefit from the quiescent bits of chitin it snags. Does anyone know?
But, hey. How 'bout them Monarchs?
Henry J · 27 October 2008
Stanton · 27 October 2008
Crudely Wrott · 28 October 2008
Stanton reports
"But, before he [the cat] could pounce on it again, it [the butterfly] then flew up and away, never to be seen again."
Yes. That is the stern stuff. Or the clever stuff. Or the stuff that works long enough to make many babies. The stuff that works.
DS · 28 October 2008
Henry,
This may just be one of those lumpers/splitters issues. My information comes from The Study of Insects by Borror and Delong, long considered to be the authority for entomology. Anyway, it's still a butterfly.
Paul Burnett · 28 October 2008
Paul Burnett · 28 October 2008
Henry J · 28 October 2008
Turban Joe Balasootoe · 28 October 2008
Butterflies
Lightning Bugs
Spiders
are "word made flesh." But cats are, too,
per Stanton.
Stanton · 28 October 2008
Turban Joe Balasootoe · 28 October 2008
Stanton:
Are you always this much fun?
Turban Joe
Crudely Wrott · 28 October 2008
Crudely Wrott · 28 October 2008
Doh!
As for the ants in the picture I linked to, they might be feeding on something the milkweed provides, possibly in return for the ants deterring certain insect pests. Or they could be feeding from those pests. Like ants and aphids. Aphids are sometimes called "antcows" because the ants "milk" them. (Unlike lady bugs, which enjoy the taste of aphids.) Or they may have some other business.
Many scenarios exist between plants and insects and I am not sure just what the ants do on the milkweed. But there they are.
One of us will probably look it up before long. ;-)
RBH · 2 November 2008