
ENT532 Fall 2024: Observing Insects at Tudek Park Butterfly Gardens
Today I came to the Butterfly Gardens at Tudek Park with the goal of finding a praying mantis. Nearly all of the spring flowers are brown and crisp, but one thing remains and covers nearly the whole garden area: goldenrod. I walked around these goldenrod fields and found many insects (pictures on ScholarSphere). There were many ladybugs reproducing and many aphids out and about. I managed to observe a ladybug larva eating an aphid. The field was riddled with carpenter and honeybees, which is so interesting to me because I feel like I've never seen this many carpenter bees in Texas before. Speaking of bees, there was a swarm of small metallic bees at the base of some sunflower stems. The sunflowers were dried and crisp, but on the leaves and stem, I found an ant roaming around the broad leaf, a snail underneath a leaf, and I watched a jumping spider drink from where the base of the leaves attach to the stem. It was interesting because the way the leaves attach at the stem acts like a bowl and serves as a water source for arthropods. Finally, as I was nearing the end of my observations, I spotted a large Chinese mantis just standing on the stems of some goldenrod. I watched her for a while, but all she did was sit there, maybe waiting for prey. At the Great Insect Fair, everyone kept asking why the mantis we had there was brown, and I didn't know what to tell them. It turns out they can molt into shades of brown and green depending on their environment. I ended up catching a different fully green mantis as the voucher specimen for this observation. Finally, I want to note that a field of goldenrod facilitates many heterospecific insect interactions. I wonder what sort of information these insects gain through these interactions. From a bee perspective, would you visit flowers with other insects present? Does this impact foraging decisions at all?
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Work Title | ENT532 Fall 2024: Observing Insects at Tudek Park Butterfly Gardens |
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License | CC BY 4.0 (Attribution) |
Work Type | Image |
Publication Date | September 15, 2024 |
Deposited | September 17, 2024 |
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