Polite Conversation

A certain relation of mine lives in California, and when our weather is bad - extra cold, or blizzardy, or it's been raining for two weeks, he likes to let me know what the weather is like where he is, because he smugly believes that I will be jealous. And it is true, when it is bitterly cold here I am jealous that it is 72ºF where he is, because 72ºF is the perfect temperature according to my tastes. But the thing is, it's always 72ºF when he tells me what his weather is like. And that's really, really boring. I realize that talking about the weather is a classically dull subject, but I love talking about the weather. I find weather really interesting. But it's only interesting if it's not doing the same thing every day, and if it's unpredictable (thought it would be nice if it was a little bit more predictable. I mean, the occasional correct forecast would be useful for making weekend plans). For instance, two nights ago we had our first frost of the season. It got down to 28ºF. Right not it is twenty minutes before one in the morning and it is 55ºF outside! That's crazy! The daytime temperature on Monday afternoon didn't reach 55ºF, and yet here it is in the middle of the night 36 hours later and that's the temperature. How is that not interesting?

In case you're wondering, the temperature during the day today was in the mid 60s, and it actually felt kind of hot. A couple of weeks ago 60ºF would have been freezing. It's funny how quickly you begin to perceive things differently. And of course the warmer weather meant different bugs in the yard today. Current hypothesis - Hemiptera like temperatures above 60º.

Backyard Bug of the Day is tricky today, because I didn't see anything new. The bug I thought I was going to choose turns out to have been featured a few months ago, so I thought I had nothing, but it turns out that the bug I am going to use is only very similar to one that has been featured this year, so it is squeaking by on a technicality.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is similar to a wasp that was BBotD a while back, but that one didn't have these adorably curly antennae, so it must have been a different species.

 This wasp was amazingly clumsy, trying to climb this blade of grass. Again, why deal with that when you have wings?

Hmmm... You know, now I realize that choosing a Backyard Bug of the Day should not have been difficult. Because I forgot I found this, which shall now be named Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Yes, I know, I have posted lots of pictures of loopers, but this one is GREEN!

 I have never seen a green looper before.

Here's some better shots of a Backyard Bug of the Day from the other day:

Here's all the lovely Hemiptera that came out today because it was so warm:

 This is the bug that was almost BBotD today.

 Aaaaand I guess it's done having its picture taken.

 Stinkbug! Haven't seen one of these in a while!

 Another stinkbug!

I thought this was kind of interesting after seeing that bug fold up its wings the other day:

 This ladybug looks to have some sort of injury to its elytra (Using new vocabulary word!).

And you can see that its wing from that side is not retracted underneath. I didn't see it fly, or even attempt to, so I don't know if it is or isn't able to do that. Though I have seen bugs with some pretty mangled parts that were able to fly just fine.

A case moth caterpillar with a really plain case:

Random Bugs:

 These bugs also, like the ones from the other day, have different size heads for male and female.

Because I think they are wonderful, there's a lot of pictures of jumping spiders in Arachnid Appreciation:
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Okay, this one is not a jumping spider.

 It seems unusual to me for a jumping spider to not have hairy chelicerae.

 This spider...

 ... and this spider were neighbors, of a sort. They were on nearby plants. The first one was on a branch that overlooked the leaf where this one was. In between there was another leaf with a fly on it.

 This spider was looking very intently downward, but I could not tell if it was staring at the fly or at the other spider.