Managed to get out to the garden with the kids today and did a little bit of fall clean-up. Today I focused on trimming the lily seed heads and collecting the seeds. From what I’ve read on-line, growing lilies from seed is a bit of a hit and miss project and I’ll have refrigerate these seeds for three weeks before planting and then start the seedlings in the spring in our cold frame. Some sites say that it can take as long as a year and a half before I’ll see any flowers others predict up to three. And I might have waited too long to harvest – hard to say.
What I did notice was that there were a number of invertebrates busy working on the seeds themselves. Most had a few small wood bugs, a token earwig (that scuttled off too fast to photograph) and an odd beetle or two. I’m not sure on exactly what kind of beetle this is. It’s probably fairly common and I’m sure that there are gardeners out there who have an idea of what it is. It definitely isn’t the introduced Scarlet Lily Beetle (Lilioceris lilii) but has a similar shape.
They were interesting to watch and A. got a kick out of counting them and the seeds. I’d love to find out what kind of beetles these are so let me know if you have an idea of what they are.
Looks like the white-fringed weevil (Naupactus leucoloma), originally from South America but introduced worldwide. It feeds on many types of plants and is often considered a pest.
Glad you’re feeling better!
I was going to suggest a weevil, but I see Ted beat me to it. My candidate was another import, http://bugguide.net/node/view/175871
Those lily pods are just gorgeous. Love the wonderful tones in the first one.
Great shots, love the ladybug, good luck on growing those seeds 😉
Love the first shot of the seed pod, fabulous macro shots 🙂
thanks for the post
Thanks Marisa – it’s always interesting to take a closer look at things in one’s backyard!
Thanks for stopping in Dominic!
Thanks Lisa – it’s always difficult getting just the right amount of the image in focus. Not sure that I got it quite right but thanks for the complement and for stopping in!
Thanks Ted – appreciate the help with identifying this beetle. I’ll have to update the post!