{"id":69282,"date":"2016-06-16T11:38:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T18:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=69282"},"modified":"2016-06-16T11:38:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T18:38:49","slug":"we-go-together-like-milkweeds-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=69282","title":{"rendered":"We Go Together Like Milkweeds and…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think of a milkweed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"This<\/a>

This is rush milkweed (Asclepias subulata<\/em>).<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good. Now think of an insect that relies on milkweed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Can<\/a>

Can you name an insect that depends on milkweed plants?<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

What did you think of?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Monarch<\/a>

Monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus<\/em>) on a rush milkweed (Asclepias subulata<\/em>).<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s what I thought. Don\u2019t be ashamed, I think of monarchs and milkweeds, too. The thing is, though, many other insects also have close relationship with members of the <\/span>asclepias<\/span><\/i> family. Let\u2019s take a look at some of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019ll start with milkweed bugs. Milkweed bugs come in two flavors: large and small.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a>

Small Milkweed Bug (Lygaeus<\/em> sp) on a desert milkweed (Asclepias erosa<\/em>).<\/p><\/div>\n

The small milkweed bug (<\/span>Lygaeus<\/span><\/i> sp) is (you guessed it!) slightly smaller than the large one. It also displays a red X on its back as well as two small white dots.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Large<\/a>

Large Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus<\/em> sp)<\/p><\/div>\n

From what I can tell, the large milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus<\/em> sp)\u00a0tend to be a littler more orange. Their markings also look like three large black horizontal bands rather than an X.<\/p>\n

Both large and small milkweed bug larva eat milkweed seeds.<\/p>\n

Milkweed bugs are in the order Hemiptera, meaning they are “true bugs”. I spotted another hemiptera chilling on a nearby milkweed, but that’s as far as I got in that identification game. Any ideas?<\/p>\n

\"Hemiptera\"<\/a>

Hemiptera<\/p><\/div>\n

There were also a ton of tarantula hawk wasps (Pepsis<\/em> or Hemipepsis<\/em> sp) buzzing around.<\/p>\n

\"Tarantula<\/a>

Tarantula Hawk Wasps are up to 2 inches long with blue-black bodies and bright rust-colored wings.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tarantula hawk wasps are so named because when it is time to reproduce, the female will sting a tarantula (permanently paralyzing it) and drag in into a pre-made brooding nest. The female wasp will then lay it’s egg(s) on the tarantula, I won’t go into the gory details here. Only the females hunt tarantulas, though, and only for reproduction. The adults feed off the nectar and flowers of milkweeds.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The tarantula hawk wasps were totally loving all the desert milkweed (Asclepias erosa<\/em>)!<\/p><\/div>\n

I photographed another insect which I believe is a wasp, but I’m not 100% sure. Any thoughts?<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>

I think this is some sort of parasitoid wasp, but I’m no expert entomologist.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yet another insect I couldn’t identify could be a bee (Order Hymenoptera) or a syrphid fly (Order Diptera). I don’t feel so bad about this one, though, because syrphid flies utilize Batesian mimicry (aka they exhibit the same coloring patterns as bees and wasps as a form of protection against predators).<\/p>\n

\"Bee<\/a>

Bee or Syrphid Fly?
Who could tell?<\/p><\/div>\n

So, moral of the blog post: milkweeds are important to lots<\/em> of insects. Let it be known.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A plethora of insect species depend on milkweeds (Asclepias<\/em> sp) for survival.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jessica Samuelson<\/p>\n

Needles Field Office<\/p>\n

Bureau of Land Management<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think of a milkweed.   Good. Now think of an insect that relies on milkweed.   What did you think of? That\u2019s what I thought. Don\u2019t be ashamed, I think of monarchs and milkweeds, too. The thing is, though, many … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7256,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[10,13,34,3528,1371],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69282"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69549,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69282\/revisions\/69549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}