The World Is A Book…

Milkweed bugs are seen between April and early August. It was nice a surprise to see them during this time of year. They probably were confused by the abnormal warm weather of October. These bugs were only 1 cm long, a little smaller than the ones I saw in July.

This little guy was walking pretty fast on the Milkweed leaf.

He got closer and closer to the vine:

Within a few seconds, he was up on the vine:

Milkweed bugs use milkweed as their primary source of food. After feeding on milkweed plant or seeds, the insects accumulate toxic glycosides in their bodies. This, combined with warning orange color, protects them against predators (aposematism). All milkweed bugs live up to 4 months. These bugs probably won’t be able to survive for long since almost all the pods have gone for the season.

The milkweed pod below (on the right) caught my eye. See how the dried pod curled up toward the vine after releasing all the seeds. Doesn’t it look like a little hanging basket to you? 

This picture below may give you an idea of  the actually size of the dried milkweed pod, and you can imagine how tiny the bug is:

Spiders have been very busy making designer webs 🙂   

I didn’t see any flowers in the woods this time, but discovered a few beautiful web art works by spiders and a couple of delicate pod baskets. 🙂

Here is the POST I did during the peak time of the milkweed:

 Jo is taking us to the Easby Abbey this week… What a grand walk, thank you so much, Jo! 

Have a great week 🙂