Beautiful Beetles

There are many species of beetles throughout the world. In fact, they are some of the most abundant insects on Earth. Some kinds are beneficial to humans, while others are not, depending on the type. Most have hard wing covers that also protect their softer abdomens. And it's those wing covers that give many species of beetles their beauty.

Several kinds of beautiful beetles inhabit various niches in Lancaster County and are visible during summer months. Some of those attractive beetles locally include ladybird beetles, red milkweed beetles, dogbane beetles, six-spotted green tiger beetles, Colorado potato beetles, locust borers and Eastern eyed click beetles.

Beautiful Beetle Buddies

Ladybird beetles and red milkweed beetles are red on top with dark dots on their wing covers. Popular among many people for a variety of reasons, ladybird beetles and their larvae are predatory, sucking the juices from aphids and other small, soft insects they find on the stems of bushes, stinging nettles and other kinds of plants on lawns and in thickets.

Red Milkweed beetles, as their name implies, suck the white sap from common milkweed plants in fields and along roadsides. These beetles lay their eggs on milkweed stems at the ground level. The larvae chew into those stems, overwinter in the perennial roots and pupate in spring. The adult beetles emerge from the soil in summer, climb up milkweed stalks to suck sap and complete their life cycle in fall.

Dogbane beetles and Six-spotted Green Tiger beetles are mostly green, which camouflages them. Dogbanes are a half-inch long and metallic green, orange and purple. They sip the sap of dogbane plants, which are related to milkweeds. Dogbane plants grow in sunny habitats, such as roadsides and the edges of woods and thickets. Dogbane eggs are laid on the ground or on the dogbanes. The youngsters dig into the soil to feed on dogbane roots and pupate. In summer they emerge as adults ready to breed.

Tiger beetle species are predatory, feeding on small insects and spiders they track down like wolves on relatively bare soil. This species is about an inch long and mostly green on top, with six white spots on their wing covers, three on each one. Female tigers lay eggs singly on bare ground. The predatory, S-shaped larvae dig vertical burrows where they drag in victims to eat, eventually pupate and emerge as adults the next summer. Adults have long legs on which they quickly run down prey.

Colorado Potato beetles and Locust Borers are colorful beetles. The potato beetles have dark and white stripes running lengthwise on their wing covers. This species eats the foliage of potatoes and wild species of nightshades in sunny habitats. Females lay eggs on the undersides of leaves, which the larvae consume. Then they drop to the ground and burrow in a bit to pupate, emerging later as pretty adults.

Locust borers are a striking black and yellow striped. As their name indicates, their young live and feed on the sapwood of black locust trees, which grow along hedgerows in local farmland. Adult borers ingest goldenrod pollen and nectar, also in farmland, and pollinate the flowers in the process.

Female borers slice pits into locust bark and deposit eggs one at a time in those cuts. The larvae dig inward, eat sapwood and pupate under the bark. The adults come out of the bark late in summer ready to mate and lay eggs.

Eastern Eyed Click beetles live under logs and fallen leaves on forest floors. Adults are mottled-gray all over for camouflage, and have large, black, fake "eyes" on the upper sides of their thoraxes that make them appear larger and fierce. But that mimicry to fool predators is also beautiful to human eyes.

Click beetles are named for the clicking we hear when they abruptly flip themselves upright by snapping a spine under the thorax into a groove. Adults have elongated and flat bodies for slipping under sheltering objects on woodland floors. They consume leaves on forest floors. Their larvae, called wireworms, live in the soil and rotting logs where they ingest roots, seeds and other insects.   

Female eyed click beetles lay eggs in the soil. The young grow slowly and pupate in the protective ground or rotting wood. They emerge as adults the following summer.

These are all lovely beetles in Lancaster County. When out in summer, the reader may happen across some of these beautiful insects.

Red Milkweed Beetles by Denise Krebs, Orange City, IA