Pollinator of the Week!

 Our pollinator of the week goes by several names~Pennsylvania soldier beetle, Goldenrod soldier beetle or Pennsylvania leatherwing. They're a common beetle in the eastern US and they're found in a staggering number on wildflowers in late summer/early fall, where they feed on pollen and meet a mate. Because of their frequent contact with flowers, soldier beetles are important pollinators. (above:Verbesina)

Feeding on Wild garlic

In my garden the adults are commonly seen on my favorite fall blooming  rough and tumble wildflowers~ Solidago, Verbesina, Stokesia, Heleniums and even alliums. They're harmless to humans and the flowers they visit, but, the number of visitors per flower may worry new or inexperienced gardeners. Please leave them be, they're beneficial garden critters.

'Peachie's Pick' Stokesia with Soldier Beetle

Pollination is incidental, soldier beetles are there to feed and mate. It's their larvae that do the most "beneficial" work for our garden systems, feeding on soft bodied critters in the soil. We're unlikely to see the larvae, which have been described as looking like tiny alligators, they're hidden in the leaf litter munching on grasshopper eggs and other soft bodied insects that might harm our garden plants. (Please note, here's another good reason to leave the leaves in place, many beneficial insects over winter in fallen leaves.)

Feeding on Helenium

If your goal is to have a pesticide free garden then you want to attract as many beneficial insects as possible to your garden. If you want soldier beetles, then plant pollen rich wildflowers like goldenrods, Verbesinas and other asteraceas that bloom in the late summer or early fall.

Happy pollinator gardening.
xoxogail

Name:    Chauliognathus pensylvanicus
Family:  Cantharidae
Size:       5/8-inch long
Color:     orange beetles, with two prominent brown-black spots on the elytra
Seen:       August and September in the middle south, July in the upper midwest
Roll:        Beneficial insect: Adult pollinates flowers and the larvae predates on grasshopper eggs and soft 
                bodied bugs

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

What's Noshing At Clay and Limestone

Pennsylvania Leatherwing on Sneezeweed/Helenium autumnale

I've a new critter in the garden~This is the first Clay and Limestone  sighting for this super duper cool Halloween colored soldier beetle.  Am I ever glad I checked this critter out before dispatching it to bug Hades.   Pennsylvania Leatherwings are highly desirable  biological control agents.  Simply stated~they are good bugs that eat bad bugs!

A highly beneficial rascal to have around the garden.

Don't you think it resembles a Lightening Bug (LB)?  I did, and that helped me discover  its identity.  Describing what it looked like and  on which flowers it was feeding  took me almost immediately to Pennsylvania Leatherwings. What a cool critter.   It's no accident that the PLB resembles its close relative the firefly/Lightening Bug.  Clever Mother Nature helps critters mimic poisonous look-a-likes and survive  predators.  No smart bird or wasp wants to eat anything that resembles a  firefly with their poisonous blood that oozes from the base of their wing covers.   On the other hand~our orange hero is a tasty treat  for birds, bats, spiders, ground beetles, and other small predators.

Soldier Beetles and Green Metallic Bee on Verbisina virginica

 Prof Michael Raupp wrote that,  "Like other members of this clan, soldier beetles are natural born killers in both adult and juvenile stages and are highly beneficial rascals to have around the garden." (source) The adult Pennsylvania Leatherwings are especially important predators of aphids and their larva consumes grasshopper eggs, aphids, small beetles, caterpillars and other soft bodied insects, most of which are pests.  Go here  and here for more on their life cycle.  I sure hope they lay eggs in the soil in my garden~I've had a plague of  grasshoppers this year,  so there will be lots of their eggs  for them to nosh on!

A pest consuming machine

The Pennsylvania Leatherwing may be a  pest consuming machine but, they play an important role in pollinating native plants like  Helenium autumnale/Sneezeweed,  Verbesina virginica/Frostweed  and other native plants in  natural areas and our gardens.

They supplement their diet with pollen and nectar

I am tickled pink to find these beneficial insects living in the garden and dining on the natives that were added to the menu with this in mind. Later this month when the Goldenrod Blooms they may stop by to nosh on its golden  pollen.  When that happens I'll call them by their other common name: Goldenrod Soldier Beetle.

They're also  Very Important Pollinators

What's noshing in your garden?

xxoogail