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Milkweed Beetles - Tetraopes tetrophthalmus
Mating milkweed beetles with red and black aposematic coloring. It seems like nearly every time I find these beetles they are mating! Note that they have a peeper: an ant is watching them through the "window" in the stem.
The scientific names are both derived from the Ancient Greek for "four eyes." Many longhorn beetles have antennae that are situated very near the eye. However, in the red milkweed beetle, this adaptation has been carried to an extreme: the bases of the antennae actually bisect the eye.
Habitat: Milkweed in a meadow
The red milkweed beetle is a beetle in the family Cerambycidae. The binomial genus and species names are both derived from the Latin for "four eyes." As in many longhorn beetles, the antennae are situated very near the eye–in the red milkweed beetle, this adaptation has been carried to an extreme: the antennal base actually bisects the eye.
comments (5)
A solid strategy to ensure you keep seeing them :) Posted 5 years ago
Speaking of critters that have lots of sex ...Have you ever heard of the Antechinus? It's a marsupial that can have single mating sessions last up to 14 hours! The males go on testosterone-fueled mating rampages for a couple weeks during mating season, during which they mate nearly non-stop with any female they can find. They do this because the testosterone in their bodies triggers a malfunction, which causes stress hormones to increase. This increase causes the males’ immune systems to completely collapse and their bodies literally start to disintegrate until they drop dead. It's more complicated than this, but seriously fascinating. The males are dead before the females can even give birth.
Posted 5 years ago
https://theconversation.com/doing-it-to-death-suicidal-sex-in-marsupial-mice-18884 Posted 5 years ago, modified 5 years ago