Finally!

I stop to inspect the Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa, every chance I get.  I am usually always rewarded by finding a great variety of insects and spiders, and, of course, the wonderful fragrance.  But, I must admit, I am always hoping to find the Red Milkweed Beetle, Tetraopes basalis.  Finally, I found two of them on what remains of one of my favorite patches of milkweeds on Chandler Road.  It was a fairly large patch until yesterday when the road department came by to beautify the place by cutting down all manner of beautiful weeds.  That included most of the milkweeds where a few eays ago I photographed Monarch Butterflies. I'll post a few more posed of each of the two beetles a while later.  These beauties spend their entire life cycles in and on the milkweed plant.