Spotted Cucumber Beetle eating a Common Pokeweed berry...

"Green bug with black spots on its wings" is all it took to find this little bug in a Google search. It's a Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata), and it's really common. I've seen it a lot in the past, but never knew its name. I found out it's a native species but can be quite a pest. Wikipedia says,

"...it looks very much like a green ladybug. However, unlike the ladybug, cucumber beetles are not considered beneficial insects. They are sucking invaders which harm crops and ornamental plants."

"Sucking invaders?" Did I read that right? It's not the usual language you see on Wikipedia, and it made me laugh, but after reading more about them, I found out they are no laughing matter and can cause extensive crop damage on anything from cucumbers, melons, and squash (all members of the cucurbits family) to corn and beans. Adults favor stems, leaves and buds of all members of the cucurbits family. They attack and overwinter in corn and bean fields, and the larva, known as the "corn rootworm," eats the roots of corn, peanuts, small grains, and wild grasses (source: The Center for Integrated Pest Management, North Carolina State University, here).

...all that...and the only reason I started photograph him was because I thought his yellowish-green and chartreuse wings looked cool against the dark purple of the Common Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) berry...

Hey, Spotted Cucumber Beetle, what are you doing on a Pokeweed berry? You should be on a cucumber...or a pumpkin, a gourd maybe, or a watermelon...or any other type of squash!

I watched this guy for quite a while, and he was definitely eating this berry. Every now and then he would wander away to another part of the plant, but he would always return to this berry. It was the only berry with a hole in it. I don't know if he created the hole, or if our resident Catbird poked a hole in the berry and the Spotted Cucumber Beetle was taking advantage of a good thing...

You can't really tell, but after he lifted his head out of the hole, he was covered in purple Pokeweed berry juice and had to take time out to clean his antenna and face.

I tried to find out if the Spotted Cucumber Beetle had a predisposition for Pokeweed berries, but I found nothing. I did however, learn how just how poisonous a Pokeweed berry is to a humans. According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (click here), eating just 10 berries can cause headache, abdominal pain, and severe diarrhea...so don't eat Pokeweed berries any time soon! The roots are the most poisonous part of the plant, followed by the leaves and stems. The berries are the least toxic. Eating large quantities of the plant can result in death from respiratory failure (source: Ohio Perennial & Biennial Weed Guide, here).

...yum! Going in for more!

The Spotted Cucumber Beetle isn't the only creature that likes Pokeweed berries, Cedar Waxwings and Gray Catbirds love them too. Pokeweed started popping up around our yard about 3 or 4 years ago...and the Cedar Waxwings and Gray Catbirds soon followed. Last year and this year a pair of catbirds visited our yard daily, sitting in the tall pokeweed plants singing and plucking off the berries one at a time. Maybe the catbird punctured the berry and the cucumber beetle benefited, or maybe this little bug really digs the fruit and created his own hole. I'll watch next year and see if any more show up and chomp away at the pokeweed berries...