When I went out with the dog, first thing this morning, I noticed a ladybug on one of my milkweeds, so I went inside and grabbed my camera to photograph it. I just don't see ladybugs very often any more. The ladybug turned out to be a Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetle (
Harmonia axyridis), which is very disappointing but not too surprising. This is the species that is displacing so many of our native ladybugs.
As usually happens when I get my camera out, however, I found a couple other things to photograph while I was outside, and I'd like to share one of them with you tonight.
As I was photographing the ladybug, I noticed another orangish red and black insect nearby, a nymph of a Milkweed Assassin Bug (
Zelus longipes). I'm fairly used to seeing these in my garden nowadays, so I didn't pay too much attention to it at first....
Then I noticed the long, small, white insect it was eating. "Damn!" I thought to myself, "It's a tiny monarch caterpillar! No wonder I haven't been seeing any larger monarch caterpillars around."
Since I'm a pretty firm believer in "the circle of life", especially when the life forms involved are native, I did nothing but take a couple pictures. The assassin bug nymph soon finished its meal and started hunting again, but I didn't notice it capture anything else.
Tonight I went through this morning's photos on the computer - and, lo and behold, that
wasn't a tiny monarch caterpillar! The Milkweed Assassin Bug nymph was actually eating a newly molted (still white) leafhopper! The leafhopper was just so small that my eyes couldn't make out what it actually was until the magic of photography enlarged it for me.
I have no idea which species of leafhopper this was, but all leafhoppers drink plant sap, so this is a perfect example of a predator keeping a plant-eating insect population under control. (To be brutally honest, of course, the same could be said if the assassin bug HAD actually been eating a monarch caterpillar.)
Once again I had a dope slap moment and had to remind myself not to jump to conclusions when I'm out in the garden, observing. I am continually amazed at the intricate functioning of the web of life...when we humans can avoid mucking around with it.
