This morning it was a bit difficult to find a bug for bug of the week. Can you guess why from this picture?
Woo, woo, it is raining here. Rain is a novel event, and all the insects apparently have sought shelter. I knew where to look, however, to find an insect that would be still out. There is always something happening on the desert milkweed, and this morning was no exception. Here is our bug this week, captured quickly before it started to rain again.
The bright red bug shown is commonly called a seed bug (Oncopeltus sanguiniolentus). It may resemble the boxelder bug found in other parts of the country, but it lacks the black bars on the red section (top) of its wings.This species has one white dot in the black part (bottom) of its wings. Another species that has the black bars in the red, but has two white dots in the black is the small milkweed bug, Lygaeus kalmii. (See photo in newer post). To paraphrase Dr. Seuss, “what a very lot of bugs there are!”
It is amazing that there are so many insects feeding on the desert milkweed. The sap of milkweeds contains both rubbery latex and poisons. Insects like queen and monarch caterpillars, yellow oleander aphids and these milkweed bugs have ways to deal with it. In this case the bugs avoid the latex-carrying channels with their straw-like mouthparts.
If there aren’t any milkweeds available, these versatile bugs also feed on the seeds of various plants.
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