Life and death in the back yard

Milkweeds are more plentiful this year, thanks to them being taken off the noxious weed list a few months ago. So Monarchs and other insects have greater nectaring sources than ever.

Common Milkweed

Not long ago, I watched a female Monarch laying eggs on one of several Common Milkweeds in our back yard. Notice the tip of her abdomen curled up against the underside of the leaf.

After she left for other milkweed leaves, I took a close look and this is what I found.....a single tiny egg.

It is a mere millimetre or so in diameter, so clearly another need for macro equipment! I watched this egg, and others, from time to time, expecting it to eventually hatch, and a few days later, this is what I saw.

 A close look reveals an exit hole at the lower left hand side of the egg. At first I thought it meant that the egg had hatched, and the tiny larva would be out feeding. However closer examination, and a bit of reading up on the process, led me to conclude that this egg had been predated. A normally hatched egg is slightly darker at the top. And the larva normally eats the egg casing before chewing a small hole in the milkweed leaf to gain access to the top. If you see a small hole in the leaf like this next photo, it could mean that an egg has hatched and the larva is out feeding.

 While I was photographing the empty egg in the photo above, I watched a small ant come along, and dive into the empty egg, presumably looking for remains of an egg, if not the entire contents.

This ant stuck around for several minutes, breaking into the already empty egg shell, before moving on to other sources of food.

Had the egg successfully hatched, a small caterpillar would have begun the next stage of its life's journey. Unlike some butterfly caterpillars, Monarch caterpillars remain essentially the same colour throughout the several instars (stages of growth) before forming a chrysalis.

This lower photo shows the caterpillar sharing the milkweed plant with quite a few aphids. These brightly coloured aphids are not native, but were introduced. They are very soft bodied and send their long mouth parts deep into the plant to access the sugar rich sap. Often they become so numerous that their sticky droppings give a shiny wet appearance to the leaves below.

If the caterpillar is successful, it will eventually form a chrysalis, or pupa, where it will spend approximately two weeks before emerging as a full adult. I have seen about 20 caterpillars on the milkweeds in our yard, but I have yet to see a chrysalis this year. Unless they are unable to do so, they will typically leave the milkweed plant and form the chrysalis elsewhere.

This is the hoped for end result of all that effort.

But as much as we would like to see a profusion of Monarch butterflies, nature doesn't allow it. Death comes to many of the eggs, as I described above, and larvae.

And death comes to many other small critters using the milkweed plants. The milkweed plants are not carnivorous like some bog dwelling plants are, but they are killers nonetheless. They attract lots of insects, some of them which are critical to successfully pollinate the milkweed flowers. But if you take a close look at the flowers of this plant, you may find something else.....dead insects.

The flower parts of the milkweed are tricky for some insects to manoeuvre on. The parts of the flower separate somewhat. If an insect is very light, they can walk across the flower parts without any trouble. If the insect is heavy, it will be able to pull its leg out from the 'horn' of the flower which may otherwise entrap the insect. If like in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, if the weight of an insect is just right....or just wrong as far as the insect is concerned, then the insect may have one or more of its legs caught in the flower parts and not be able to free itself. This next photo shows a fly, which is dangling down and quite dead.

This next photo shows a slightly larger insect, a type of bee, which I was surprised to find entrapped.

I thought it was a goner as well, but it struggled and a couple of days later, I noticed that it was gone. Some insects may even get to the point of pulling the entrapped leg from its body in its struggles, but when you've got six legs and rely heavily on wings for transportation, I guess surviving with only five legs is a preferable option.

We noticed another deadly event in our back yard recently. With all of the vegetation, it is attractive to Eastern Cottontails. On more than one occasion, they have had nests in our yard, and the adults can be seen all year around somewhere in or near the vicinity of our yard. A couple of little bunnies have been hanging around nibbling away at various types of vegetation.....sometimes the clover in the yard, and sometimes the flowers.

There is no question that little bunnies are cute. But one day not long ago, Marie ventured out into the yard first thing, and saw this sight.

Clearly a bunny had now provided nourishment to a predator of some sort, with only a few clumps of fur and its entrails remaining. We suspect it was a cat, since they are great hunters and more than one happens to roam around the neighbourhood. A bird of prey such as a Great Horned Owl would likely have flown off with it, not wanting to hang around the yard any longer than necessary to capture its prey. Clearly whatever caught this ate it on the spot, and it was not afraid of spending time in a residential area. The gates around the yard were closed, so it wasn't likely a dog, although it is always possible it could have been a fox, which does have the ability to climb. But a cat is my guess.

It is a sad tale concerning the bunny, but nature isn't always pretty.....if it weren't for predators, given the rate that cottontails reproduce, we would be over run with them in very short order!

 

Backyard wildlife

Sometimes you don't have to go very far to shoot and enjoy all sorts of wildlife. And on the warmer summer days, since I don't tolerate the heat and humidity all that well, it is nice to have access to A/C in the house. So brief forays into the back yard can provide some fascinating wildlife, and numerous macro photography opportunities.

Of course it helps to have a diversity of wildflowers, shrubs and trees.....something I've been working on for more than a few years. And Marie has a great diversity of more functional (a.k.a edible) garden plants to add to the attraction for wildlife.

Milkweed and Purple Coneflower are perfect for attracting butterflies and many other insects.

Monarch

Black Swallowtail

Red Admiral

Silver-spotted Skipper

Tawny Emperor

This Tawny Emperor was actually one that visited our garden in 2013.....I'm still looking for my first one for this year!

One critter that may look like a butterfly is actually a day-flying moth, the Eight-spotted Forester. It is very distinctive.

Eight-spotted Forester

Another few moths which one seldom sees, but are likely around, are the underwing group. This Dark Red Underwing was actually on a neighbour's house.

Dark Red Underwing

This pose does not show the deep red and black patterned underwing, but if it is startled, it will flash its wings and the colour and pattern will be quite obvious.

This next moth is small but very distinctive. It is not native; the larvae depend on non-native species such as Tree-of-Heaven, an aggressive fast-growing tree that is often found in abandoned lots and other disturbed sites. We don't have any Tree-of-Heaven in our immediate area that I know of. The adults feed on the nectar of flowers, which they do find here.

Ailanthus moth

There are lots of other pollinators around, and may be different ones each day or week.

Bumblebee sp

There are quite a few different kinds of bumblebees, and even some members of the fly family that look a lot like a bumblebee.

This next photo is of a Long-legged Fly....it is very small, as the size of the fly compared to the leaf venation indicates.

 

 This next image is of a type of Blowfly, probably of the Lucilia genus. Its iridescent green colour and the many black hairs make it quite attractive up close.

 The next image is of a type of fruit fly also known as a Sunflower Maggot Fly. The term maggot has an undesirable connotation.....but I think this tiny delicate fly is quite attractive.

Beetles are common amongst these wildflowers. This first one is a Margined Carrion Beetle. It gets the term 'margined' for the pinkish margin around the head.

Margined Carrion Beetle

Long-horned Beetle

Red Milkweed Beetle

A tiny insect I always look forward to finding is this Red-banded Leafhopper. Being only about 5-6 mm long, it isn't going to get your attention from a distance, but up close, it is a real crowd-pleaser!

Red-banded Leafhopper

Milkweeds attract aphids, among other things.

Occasionally a dragonfly will stop by. They are always on the lookout for insects, their main diet. This is a female Common Whitetail.

Common Whitetail

A very undesirable insect to have around, especially if you have veggies such as squash or zucchini growing, is the Squash Bug. Their eggs are easy to find under the leaves of the plants.

Squash Bug eggs

A recent surprise to find in our yard was this member of the katydid family. It is a young one, with its wings not fully developed. It was crawling around a milkweed plant as well as a Red Cedar. In looking at the tail plate from another photo I took, it appears to be a Fork-tailed Bush Katydid. For some sub-groups of katydids, particularly the bush katydids, an examination of the male's tail plate shape is important for identification.

Fork-tailed Bush Katydid

Katydids are members of that interesting group of insects that sing. There are many species across the province and elsewhere. A very useful book was published in 2006, entitled The Songs of Insects by Elliott and Hershberger, complete with fabulous photos and a CD of their songs. As they were publishing it, they came across a couple of images that I had of unusual colour forms of one kind of katydid....a pink colour form and a yellow one, which they asked to publish. I was quite pleased to let them include it in their book.

And finally, at least for this post, I leave you with another more common type of wildlife that many of you have likely seen in your yard.

Eastern Cottontail

There is a family of cottontails that really like to hang out in or near our yard. We don't cut the lawn often, so there is always lots of clover for them to munch on when they want a change in diet from our garden plants. And on more than one occasion, they have found a suitable nesting spot somewhere amongst our yard vegetation. An adult regularly hangs out in the front yard prairie patch on cool fall and winter days, soaking up some sunlight.