Gary J Sibio
Large Milkweed Bugs, Adults and Nymphs, on a Milkweed Seed Pod (2015-10-02 14-47-24)
The photo was taken at the McHenry County North Branch Conservation Area which is located at 11500 North Keystone Road, Richmond, Illinois.
I used a Nikon Coolpix P7700 camera with a Hoya circular polarizer.
Large Milkweed Bug – Order Hemiptera : Family Lygaeidae : Oncopeltus fasciatus
Milkweed – Order Gentianales : Family Apocynaceae : Subfamily Asclepiadoideae : Tribe Asclepiadeae : Subtribe Asclepiadinae : Genus Asclepias
© 2015 Gary J. Sibio. All rights reserved.
#Illinois #nature #insects #wildflowers #nativeplants #milkweed
Excellent job again Gary. Wold love these in my backyard.
They are pretty common around here.
Here too and I search them out often.
Great Look Bugs not seen ever
Thank you very much, SOBAN.
Impressive bug not seen these..
They aren’t really found in your part of the world. They are found in Central America, up through Mexico and the USA east of the Rockies into southern Canada.
Presumably you used a macro lens? I would be delighted to get a shot like this!
Not really. I have a fixed lens camera. (I gave up all my fancy lenses when I switched to digital in 2005.) A lot of times I use a screw-on close-up lens but this one was done by setting the camera at its macro setting. No macro lenses.
that leaf is at max capacity…
True. I’ve seen bunches of these insects on a seed pod before but never this many. It usually seems to be about 6 or 8.
looks like an all you can eat buffet for birds
I’m not so sure. Milkweed is toxic to many animals. It won’t kill them but it tastes awful. Monarch butterflies capitalize on this. Their caterpillars live on milkweed and absorb the toxic chemicals. When they morph into butterflies, it stays. When a bird eats a Monarch, it tastes awful. I’ve seen photos of birds who ate a Monarch vomiting. They don’t eat the, again.
These bugs would have the same toxic chemicals in their systems. Note that they are also orange and black, just like Monarch. I’d bet that, if a bird ate one, it would only do so once.
that explains it. if they’re toxic, they can afford to congregate…