Yellow Coneflower

Many kinds of insects visit the flowers, but especially bees, including Epeoline Cuckoo bees, large Leaf-Cutting bees, Green Metallic bees, and other Halictine bees. Other insect visitors include wasps, flies, small butterflies, and beetles. These insects suck nectar from the flowers, although the bees also collect pollen and some beetles feed on pollen. The caterpillars of the butterfly Chlosyne nycteis (Silvery Checkerspot) feed on Yellow Coneflower, as well as the caterpillars of the moths Eynchlora acida (Wavy-Lined Emerald) and Eupithecia miserulata (Common Eupithecia). Goldfinches occasionally eat the seeds, while some mammalian herbivores eat the foliage and flowering stems, particularly groundhogs and livestock.