Aster Buffet

     Yesterday, October 1, I drove through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland for a couple hours to experience what was going in nature.  The weather was sunny and warm; a lovely day to be out.  I saw clumps of goldenrod flowers on tall stalks, orange cow pumpkins, beige, standing cornstalks and green and yellow soybean foliage in the fields as I drove along.  Then, suddenly, I came to a big, bushy-looking aster plant with hundreds of pale-lavender flowers along the damp edge of the country road I was on.  Scores of insects of various kinds were sipping nectar from those beautiful aster blossoms.  I had to stop and experience that aster buffet.
     Asters of various kinds begin to bloom in September and reach a climax of flowers early in October.  During October, some abandoned fields are white with the white blossoms of a kind of aster, making those open spaces look like snow fell only on them.  Many people plant New York asters, with their deep-purple blooms, on their lawns.  And asters with small, pale-lavender blooms are common in wet meadows and roadside ditches.  Those lovely flowers are my favorite asters.
     August, September and October are the months of insects in Lancaster County.  They are more abundant then than any other time of year, providing beauty and intrigue to those who look for it.   
     I saw many pretty pearl crescent butterflies, handsome meadow fritillary butterflies and yellow sulphur butterflies fluttering among those aster blooms.  I also saw some each of least skipper butterflies and cabbage white butterflies.  And I saw several worker bumble bees and a few worker honey bees among those aster flowers as well.  All those insects were peacefully sipping nectar.
     The various kinds of asters in the eastern United States provide the last copious supplies of sugary nectar to a variety of insects still active in the warm afternoons of October.  When the aster flowers die toward the end of the month, the insects are out of food.  But the insects, themselves, have either died in heavy frosts or sought shelter to wait out the winter.
     The beautiful, brown and orange pearl crescents are often the most abundant butterfly species on aster blossoms, partly because they consumed aster stems and leaves when they were caterpillars.  Adult pearl crescents, therefore, are right at aster nectar because that is where they were larvae and pupae.  They have no need to travel to find nectar sources.
     The attractive meadow frittilary butterflies are common in farmland because their larvae ingest the leaves of violets, which are common in fields and lawns, and along roadsides.  Those are the same human-made habitats that asters bloom in.
     Cute, little least skippers, that have big, dark eyes, are abundant along roadsides because their larvae ingest grass, which is common along rural roads.  These skippers as adults usually don't have far to travel to find aster nectar.
     Almost all the asters I saw blooming beautifully here and there along country roads and small waterways, and on lawns, that warm afternoon were swarming with nectaring butterflies and bees.  Those plants and their attractive insects brought lots of interesting life to Lancaster County farmland.
     I also saw a few each of spur-throated and meadow grasshoppers clinging to grass stems under the big aster plant I was visiting and heard a couple of chirping field crickets at the base of that aster.  These related, field and roadside insects help make croplands interesting, and provide food for predatory American kestrels, screech owls, striped skunks, red foxes, two kinds of toads and other creatures.
     In fact, while watching butterflies and bees on that particular aster plant, I saw a big, green praying mantis stalking insects on it and an attractive, black and yellow garden spider wrapping a paralyzed sulphur butterfly in its webbing on that aster.             
     I had an enjoyable time watching those interesting insects and the pretty spider on that beautiful aster in a roadside ditch.  It is great how adaptable many kinds of wild plants and animals are to be abundant in farmland that is plowed, planted, cultivated and harvested every year, making life for those wild beings difficult.