Aster World, Part 1: Monarchs and Owlets

Symphyotrichum pilosum--Hairy Aster--is a native wildflower that volunteers profusely in the Creek Field, the Road Field, and our backyard.  It is an amazing pollinator plant!  This year I tried to document some of the creatures that came to the asters.   I am sure there were many more!  (Many thanks to bugguide.net and the Kansas Arthropods Facebook group for help with identification!)

These migrating Monarchs--newly metamorphosed, they're so bright and clean--came to feed on the nectar in the flowers:

Among the moth visitors, my favorites were these owlet moths, so named because their faces resemble owls.  This one is Rachiplusia ou.  Supposedly, "ou" comes from that splash of white paint on the upperside forewings--which to some observers spells "o-u."  :-) 

These little guys hover while feeding making it a treat

when they stop long enough to show their markings.

There's that adorable owl face:

Another member of the Owlet Family feeding on the asters was this handsomely-robed guy, Spodoptera frugiperda.  Here he is in action:

The females have more subtle markings, making their wings appear to be a plain gray.  The larvae of this species are called "armyworms."  Their voracious appetite gives the species its name, "frugiperda," meaning "fruit" that is "lost."  However, grasses are their preferred food.  S. frugiperda lives year-round in the south and migrates into Kansas toward the end of the summer.  

Other citizens of Aster World--true bugs, Tree Cricket and Meadow Katydid, flower flies, iridescent flies, spiders, bees, wasps, beetles, other butterflies and moths--appear in the following posts.