Winged Loosestrife

Many kinds of insects visit the flowers, including various long-tongued bees, green metallic bees, bee flies, butterflies, and skippers. Among the long-tongued bees, are such visitors as honeybees, bumblebees, cuckoo bees (Epeolus spp., Triepeolus spp., Coelioxys spp.), long-horned bees (Melissodes spp., Svastra spp.), and leaf-cutting bees (Megachile spp.). Sometimes Syrphid flies feed on the pollen, but they are non-pollinating. A Eurasian aphid, Myzus lythri, sucks plant juices from the aerial parts of Lythrum spp., and the caterpillars of a moth, Eudryas unio (Pearly Wood Nymph), reportedly feed on these plants. In addition, Winged Loosestrife may be a host plant of the leaf beetle, Pachybrachis calcaratus. The seeds are too small to be of any interest to birds; little information is available about this plant's status as a food source to mammalian herbivores.