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Teaching Marsh: Hidden Diversity - Insects
Many insects are found in tidal marshes. Some insects spend part of their lives in the water as aquatic organisms, while others are only terrestrial living out of the water. The most common insects observed in the Teaching Marsh are dragonflies & butterflies. Salt marsh mosquitoes are not a problem as long as there is a healthy fish population in the shallow water community.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife |
Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) - The eastern tiger swallowtail lives in deciduous woods along streams, rivers and swamps. Females lay single green colored eggs on the leaves of woody plants. The caterpillar is brown and white when it is young; when it matures it is green with orange and black false eyespots. The chrysalids overwinter (Natureworks).
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Photo by Tanya
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Monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus) - Monarch butterfly larva feed on milkweed. Adults gather nectar from flowers. The monarch is not a very pleasant meal for predators. Eating milkweed causes the monarch to store alkaloid. This makes it taste horrible to predators! |
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife |
Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) - In the spring and summer, the monarch butterfly's habitat is open fields and meadows with milkweed. The monarch butterfly is a long-distance migrator! It migrates both north and south like birds do. But, unlike birds, individual butterflies don't complete migration both ways. It is their great-grandchildren that end up back at the starting point (Natureworks).
Kids, learn more at this site
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Photo by J. Seibel
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Dragonflies (Order Odonata) - Nymphs can be found in vegetation and hiding around underwater structures. Adults feed on insects such as mosquitoes, midges, flies and winged ants. Skimmers fly mostly during the day. They are called skimmers because they tend to fly low over the water. They often follow the same path and return to a familiar perch (TAMU - Entomology).
Learn more about them at http://www.dragonflies.org/
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Photo by Drees
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Water boatman (Corixa spp.) - It is an elongate bug with a wide head and eyes that llives in both fresh and brackish water. It is gray and brown with yellow stripes. It feeds on algae and plant particles with its front forelegs. They are relatively defenseless and are usually preyed upon by fish, birds, insects and even humans in Mexico where they are gathered from lakes by the tons (Lippson, 1984). |
Photo by Susan Ellis |
Mosquito (family Culicidae) - A common “belief” is that wetlands should be drained to control mosquitoes. However, mosquitoes have a very short life cycle (from four days to a month), and their eggs can remain dormant for more than a year, hatching when areas are flooded with water. Therefore, even if a wetland has been drained, it may still hold enough water after a rain to breed mosquitoes. An artificially drained area may actually produce more mosquitoes than it did when it was a natural wetland. A healthy wetland provides habitat for
many unique animals including natural
enemies of mosquitoes. These natural
predators keep the mosquito population
low. Mosquitoes become a problem, however,
in areas that have standing water, yet
do not support the beneficial animals that
feed on mosquitoes. (U. of Illinois Extension) |
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