The common milkweed growing in front of the Visitor Center at Ijams is now attracting hordes of insects. Hordes. Yesterday after work it was swarming with six-legged life.
Milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) are yet another insect in the order Hemiptera, the so-called “true bugs.” The Hemis do not have mouths for biting or even chewing their food. They have built-in straws, tube-like beaks to pierce and then suck out the plant fluids.
They also have few predators; a good thing because who wants to be eaten alive? They concentrate the bad tasting compounds found in the sap of milkweed plants in their bodies. (Monarch butterflies do the same.) The bugs use the bright coloration to advertise their unpalatability. Inexperienced birds that eat their first milkweed bug are unlikely to try another orange and black insect.
Some insects that do not taste bad use similar color patterns to fool birds. These are known as mimics.
-Photo taken at Ijams Nature Center.
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