Restoring Bottomland Prairie: A Tale of Two Julys (2015 vs. 2016, Part 3)

My fascination with insects often turns into horrified fascination.  Nature is not red in tooth and claw--it is every color of the rainbow, with creatures that don't even have teeth or claws.   What to say about the wasps that paralyze spiders and then furnish their nests with them so that when the wasp larvae hatch, they can eat the spider alive?

Last July, my phone camera caught two Ferruginous Spider Wasp (Tachypompilus ferrugineus) females fighting furiously on the ground in front of the cement wall of our back porch.  The prizes were a paralyzed spider lying nearby and an (apparently highly desirable) burrow site in a crack in the concrete.  The defeated female flew away (and rested under my truck, off-camera), while the victor grabbed the spider, dragged it a short way, then set it down while she groomed herself.  After investigating the burrow, she retrieved the spider and dragged it into the burrow, all the while followed by a mysterious fourth character, who briefly entered the burrow as well.   I noticed this shadowy presence only when I watched the video--I didn't see him in real life.  In the video he never shows his face (or head, thorax, or abdomen).   However, my superhero Dr. Bugman (aka Dick Beeman) speculates that this interested fourth party could have been the spider's mate, following her pheromone trail.   The small wasp at the end could well be the victor's mate, as male wasps are smaller than the females.

Compared to Spider Wasps, the Wheel Bug (Arilus cristata) is downright genteel.  He is just an honest predator, killing other insects and eating what he kills.   His meals are free-range, right up to the end.   

In mid-July 2015, I watched a Wheel Bug on a Compass Plant ingest a Cucumber Beetle.  

Wheel Bug stalks Cucumber Beetle
Road Field Buffer
July 14, 2015

I couldn't help but identify with both the predator & the prey.   Even a tiny act of predation, when closely considered, inspires existential ponderings.

I  wrote about this incident & included a video in an earlier post:

http://prairiecommunity.blogspot.com/2016/01/we-are-molecules-on-move-margy-stewart.html

Now one year later, I went back to that same Compass Plant.  It is in the field buffer that was burned this year, on March 17, 2016.  

So far this year, it has sent up lush leaves but no flower stalk.  

The Compass Plant that hosted
the Wheel Bug & the beetle
in 2015.  In an area that was
burned this year, it has so far
sent up only leaves.

Just across the driveway in an unburned area, Compass Plants are blooming heartily.  

A neighboring Compass Plant
blooms across the driveway, in an unburned area.

However, there are no Wheel Bugs on the flowers.  The flowers seem devoid of animal life altogether.    But closer inspection reveals tiny ants and several spiders so small they are scarcely visible to the naked eye.  

This July is different from last July!

I have yet to see an adult Wheel Bug anywhere this year.  

Since July 2015, I have learned that newly hatched Wheel Bugs do not grow their "wheel" until the final molt.   Until then, they have a raised back end!  

A Wheel Bug nymph, June 2016.  In the final instar, he will
trade that raised rear-end for a thoracic wheel.  

I have been seeing Wheel Bug nymphs around since June.   Where are the adults?  

I hope all is well in Wheel Bug land.

A Wheel Bug is a perfectly miniaturized cross between a dinosaur and an elephant.   The dinosaur was the one Alley Oop rode around.

Young or old, a Wheel Bug is a spiffy bug!  

I will be very happy to see the adults--on whatever plant they choose this year.