How to Suceed in Bugness

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wish I could be Backyard Bug of the Day. I wonder what I have to do to win that honor." Well, today, with the help of today's Backyard Bug of the Day, I will tell you.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 First, be an insect. You don't have to be a true bug, which is an insect in the order Hemiptera, distinguished by their mouth parts. You used to be eligible as an arachnid, but now that I have Arachnid Appreciation, spiders don't tend to get chosen for BBotD. By the way, check out the mouth parts of this guy! I think it is a species of fly.

Sitting still to have your picture taken is crucial, even if it's just long enough for me to focus and shoot once.

 You have a better chance if you let me take shots from several angles.

 Having an outstanding, or at least interesting, feature is helpful. Like cool, striped eyes. (This picture is zoomed in, which is why it's so grainy. But those are some cool eyes, eh?).

 Having really cool wings is always a plus.

It definitely helps your case if I have never seen you before, but if I have seen you before, and you have still never been chosen as Backyard Bug of the Day, perhaps because you are not very interesting, your best bet is to sit really, really, still and let me take lots of pictures of you. Which, for the record, is not what today's Backyard Bug of the Day did. However, it did stick around for a while, and pose many different ways, it just moved a little too fast most of the time. But it was chosen anyway, because I have never seen it before, and it has really cool eyes AND really cool wings.

And that's it! Now you know how to become Backyard Bug of the Day!

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Goldenrod. For some reason some of the buds are purple.

I actually had to make a choice for Backyard Bud of the Day today. But the great thing about buds, as opposed to bugs, is I know exactly where to find the other ones that didn't get chosen so I can use them tomorrow.

Remember that bug that didn't get chosen as Backyard Bug of the Day yesterday because it wouldn't sit still? Well, it could have been chosen today, because I found it again. In fact, I found several:

 This little one was knocked out of the scrum.

 I am pretty sure I heard it say, "Whatever."

I believe the two wing covers (and that wing on the top) on the outside belong to the female. There appear to be three others involved, after the one was knocked out. The one that was ejected appears smaller than the others.

While we have insect reproduction in the forefront of our minds, here's the eggs the moth laid last night:

Pearly white. I noticed more eggs elsewhere on the deer netting that were a slightly darker color. I am guessing they have been there longer, and feel woefully unattentive for not having noticed them there before. But who looks at deer netting with great interest? Anyway, I'll keep an eye on these eggs.

While we are catching up on things, I got my wish, and saw the weird caterpillar moving today. In case you are wondering, it glides. I tried to get video, but made a mistake, so there is none - not that it would have been good, because it was very windy today. Anyway, I did get pictures:

 Gliding...

 Gliding...

 It wraps itself around the edge of the leaf when it eats.

Very weird. But it ate a lot today.

More caterpillars:

 White hickory tussock moth caterpillar. With venomous spines!

 I posted pics of these a few days ago, and showed some eggs on the leaf, and mentioned that monarch caterpillars eat their egg casings after they hatch. I noted that these caterpillars had not done that. From this picture you can see that they really don't want to eat the egg casings. If, that is, these are even their egg casings. I have no proof of that. There are a couple of sets of them on this leaf, though.

 I love the threat display. Seriously? I think I could take you.

I need to go back and look at what these looked like when I first saw them, because I think they have changed...

This is turning out to be a rather Lepidoptera-centric blog - a cocoon:

And moths in the wild:

Just a couple of random bugs today:

And now, Arachnid Appreciation!

They're pretty scary looking today - you've been warned.
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 This is the new spider from last night, the one with the web that went way up into a tree. It's a little less intimidating during the day. I think it's adorable the way spiders try to make themselves look invisible by hiding under their own legs.

 It moved its web a little bit tonight, which is good, because it went out into the path, and was destined to get broken.

 And this is a new spider tonight, that moved into the vacant spot where Spider #2 used to be. I know this is confusing for you, but trust me, it makes sense in my head.

 This is a different species than the others - even different from last night's new spider.

Okay, now even I am confused. Let's just leave it at There Are Many Kinds of Spiders in the Backyard.

A rare glimpse of the other side of this spider - the largest (and Spider #3, if you're keeping track).