A patch of daisy fleabane was buzzing, crawling, and hopping with over fifty arthropod species. The patch was found to represent three different classes under the phylum Arthropoda.
On a sunny summer morning I spent well over an hour examining a patch of daisy fleabane, a weedy plant that stands at about four feet tall and is topped with small white flowers that are daisy-like with fringed petals surrounding a yellow center. I was at this flower patch for the purpose of counting arthropods. Arthropods are diverse creatures that have exoskeletons and segmented bodies among other characteristics. Insecta, Arachnida, and Malacostraca are three examples of classes under the phylum Arthropoda. In this patch of daisy fleabane, which measured about twelve square feet, each of those three classes was represented.
One of the first arthropods I saw happened to be one of the biggest. It was an eastern pondhawk, a dragonfly. Its green color informed me that it was a female. (Males are blue.) Mason bees crawled over flower heads, feeding on nectar and collecting pollen on their legs. A yellowjacket and a bald-faced hornet stopped by with rumbling wing beats. Black house flies with red eyes and yellow-tinged wings rested on plant stems while thin, yellow-and-black-stripped hover flies hovered around flower heads and also fed on nectar. A summer azure, a small pale blue butterfly with speckled wings, fluttered to the patch and barely stopped before continuing its flight.
I slowly walked around the flowers, setting the surrounding grass aflutter with flying moths and hopping crickets with every step I took. Pausing was important. I would sit and stare at seemingly nothing, but nothing usually turned into something. Arthropods can display amazing camouflage capabilities and be of a truly tiny size. By pausing and focusing on one specific area at a time, I was able to locate little green aphids blending into daisy fleabane stems and a few stink bugs blending remarkably well into spent, brown flower heads of a different plant species within the dark center of the patch. Winter fireflies were really obscure as they rested on the undersides of leaves.
After documenting fifty-seven arthropod species, I stopped the count and left with my list. But I was not done yet. I returned to this flower patch the following morning and started a new list that was eventually filled with fifty-four species.
The number of observed species on the second day decreased slightly, but I did see some new faces. Unlike on the first day, I did not see any dragonflies or damselflies at all. I did, however, spot a European mantid, perhaps better known as a praying mantis, whose angular body was almost flawlessly camouflaged among the leaves. A few mosquitos that had been absent the day prior also made their presence known. A fourth ant species, the ponera ant, made it to the list as well. And it was on the second day when I saw the only isopod of either of the two days to represent the class Malacostraca: a single roly-poly, or pillbug, crawled in the grass and into the patch of daisy fleabane.
Identification was far from easy. I did my best and consulted multiple sources and managed to attach names to some fascinating creatures, but I was unable to properly identify each and every one of these arthropod species (including three spiders). And I am pretty certain that some arthropods went completely unseen and, therefore, were not recorded on the list. Regardless, counting them and seeing firsthand what a happening place this flower patch was made for two really fun and interesting summer mornings.