22 July 2009

(Click for full view)



These are six black-margined loosestrife beetles devouring a patch of invasive purple loosestrife plants. I found them while I was doing observations for my Animal Field Behavior class on the school's wetland reservation. Using beetles to get rid of the plants is a greener way to exterminate the plants, as long as they don't let the beetles become pests too.


From far away purple loosestrife looks almost like fireweed, but up close you can see the difference (fireweed is on the left).



Edit: Ugh. This layout doesn't automatically resize large photos. I'll work on this, probably tomorrow. You can only see four the beetles now.