A Week's Worth of Thistle

Prologue

Last week, while cleaning the garage, I noticed something on the thistle that had invaded the small flower bed just outside. I got closer and found what almost looked like a pillbug, but with something on its back.

After extensive researching, I found that it possibly was a tortoise beetle larva. These little guys keep a pile of waste (basically poop and exuviae, or shed skin) on their backs as a means of defense. These work in a couple of ways, for one, a predator flying in might take a piece of this shield rather than the larva by mistake, or, depending on the larva's diet, the shield may be full of foul smelling and tasting chemicals.

When I found this out, I returned to the plant to get a closer look at these guys, and was surprised at what I found.

A spider had captured one of the larva despite the shield being in place. It made me wonder how the spider navigated around the shield in order to catch the tasty meal underneath.

It was at this point that I decided that the drama going on with this single thistle plant would be my day-to-day soap opera.