The Hazards of Flying From Flowers

A few decades ago the vision a lot of people had of The Future, meaning the 21st century, was that we would all have flying cars. People thought that by this current time, we would all be zooming about in the air, instead of crawling along on roads. In spite of the fact that I often wonder why bugs (and birds) that can fly will often walk, I think flying cars are a monumentally bad idea. Yeah, maybe it would be a faster way to get around, but with terrestrial cars, when someone runs out of gas they don't crash land on top of my house. And really, I think it is better that we not add a third dimension to the ways in which people can act like rage-filled lunatics behind the wheel. Why I am I bringing this up on a blog about bugs? Because that's what came to mind today as I was observing a patch of goldenrod. There were at least 50 bugs, mostly bees, flitting about among the flowers, going from plant to plant, and as I stood there and watched, a couple of times there would be two bugs who launched from different plants at the same time and almost collided in midair. I think in one case they actually did collide. There is no way that humans in flying cars would not be doing this all the time. Picture the parking lot after any concert or sporting event. Sure, there would probably be rules and laws, but we have those now and not everybody follows them. Flying is instinctual for bugs, and they still crash. So, count me out for flying cars. And when they finally come, don't fly over my house.

Flying is still weeks away for today's Backyard Bugs of the Day:

 I was right, the moth eggs were about to hatch. I checked them today, and was surprised to see baby caterpillars.

Actually, this is what I saw:

 It happened really fast. I am not even sure what happened there. In fact, these pictures only show two caterpillars, but there were more there in the nanosecond before I pressed the shutter button. They jumped away, I think.

To take these couple of pictures I had my finger on the deer netting to stabilize it, and when I pulled my hand away, it was covered with tiny caterpillars, and I totally freaked and had an, "AAAAH! THERE'S A BUG ON ME!" reaction. I couldn't help it, I am pretty freaked out by caterpillars in general, and there were a lot of them. I kept my cool enough to know I didn't want to squish them, so I carefully - but quickly - wiped them off onto the grass. And then I didn't touch the deer netting again (which was partly from not wanting to squish anything. Give me some credit). The thing is, these little buggers are so small they are hard to see.

So, check out a few pictures of them.

I don't know why they aren't all hatching at the same time, since they were all laid at the same time.

There are two caterpillars in this shot.

I don't know if the silk threads you can see are from spiders having been by there, or if they are from the caterpillars themselves.

There are a lot more eggs on the deer netting, so I guess there are a lot more caterpillars to come.

I didn't see a whole lot of bugs today, but I got some quite good pictures of a few of them. Random Bugs:

There's a story to this one. After I took the pictures of the caterpillars I walked along that same garden bed looking for bugs, and when I saw one I wanted to take a picture of, I raised my camera to take a picture and saw something on the back of the camera. The something then flew onto my shirt, and I had another, "AAAAAH! THERE'S A BUG ON ME!" reaction, but when it flew off my shirt it was obvious that it was just a moth, and not something that could sting, so I quickly chilled out, and watched where it landed so I could take a picture. It didn't land in a good place, it landed in a bramble thicket, several feet in, so I couldn't get close. Also, it was one of those situations where you want to take your first shot from farther away, so you don't spook the bug. So I took this shot, then moved closer, and was focusing and framing and just about to take the next shot, which would have been cool, because it was a good side view, and I could see the moth's proboscis curling and uncurling and... Well, do you see the bee in this picture? Look for it. Now do you see it? Well, just before I pressed the shutter button that bee landed on the moth, and the moth had an, "AAAAAAAH! THERE'S A BUG ON ME!" reaction and flew to a different spot, where I could not get a picture of it. The End.

 You can't really tell from this picture, but this bee (Wasp? Hornet?) is dark green, and therefore awesome.

Bugs really like the rain gauge. I don't know why.

 Bee or fly? Fly. Hover fly. I think.

 Here's one of the caterpillars from yesterday. In this shot you can really see its eyes. Five of them, anyway. (They have 12) No? Can't seem them?

I'll zoom this in:

Now can you see them? For a creature with so many eyes, caterpillars don't have very good eyesight. The other thing you can see in this picture is why I am so creeped out by caterpillars (Well, one of the reasons).

 Same caterpillar. It has a problem brewing...

There are two bugs in this picture. Can you spot them both? (Hint, only one of them is a True Bug).

 The head end of the camouflage looper.

 Just a demonstration of how uncooperative buffalo tree hoppers are. Picture #1...

 Picture #2. Turned its back on me. And then flew away.

 A different buffalo tree hopper. Is that an ovipositor?

Cocoon

I tend to check mostly the same places every day when I do my bug walk, but once in a while I veer to something I usually ignore, like the bush in the rock garden in front of the house. This is the same bush where I watched the praying mantises be born a few months ago. Today, for no reason at all, I decided that I should check it out, because I probably haven't looked for bugs there since the praying mantises hatched. So what did I find?

 Praying mantises. Three of them. Adults.

 It was kind of interesting to find these here today, when I had just watched the freshly hatched caterpillars in the backyard. It was a Circle of Life kind of moment.

See those spiky legs? They grab their prey in the crook of those arms and clamp them in. You can see how it would be hard to get away.

 

 This wasp is gorgeous. I love those curled antennae, just like you draw on bugs when you're a kid, even though that's not what most insects' antennae look like.

 This wasp let me get really close. So cooperative.

Arachnid Appreciation:

 It's a bit hard to spot this spider, but it had an impressive web - a tightly woven mat over a foot wide, underneath the plants in the flower bed. It was running nimbly over its web when I spotted it. I am not sure how it works, because it didn't appear to be sticky at all, but the spider must know what it's doing.

 Waiting for the new caterpillars to come its way.