A soldier eats a blackberry

Summertime is the time to look for wild blackberries. Starting in mid-July and extending for about a month, native wild blackberries ripen in Southeast Missouri.

Wild blackberries are borne on long, thorny, woody stems. When ripe, these blackberries are sweet and edible.

In my photo here, you see an insect called the goldenrod soldier beetle eating the juice away from a wild blackberry seed. The goldenrod soldier beetle is a good insect in your yard or garden. It feeds mostly on nectar and equals the butterfly as a valuable pollinator. It resembles, but is not, a firefly.