A Pleasant Surprise

I had a wonderful surprise this afternoon during my bug walk - a new bug! This is not a time when I am expecting to find bugs I have never seen before; I have been having a hard time finding any bugs at all, and it is more difficult every day to find something to be Backyard Bug of the Day. But today, there is a clear-cut winner. Not that it wasn't hard to find bugs today, because it certainly was. But finding a new bug made me almost giddy.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 First a bug-spotting eye test, though a fairly easy one.

 Here it is!

 It was above my head on the tree, so I tried to coax it down a bit and ended up with it on my finger. It sort of looks like a hopper, but not really.

 Interesting face...

I have a Backyard Bud of the Day, too:

This is a foolishly optimistic plant in my vegetable garden, keeping company with the remnants of the failed Brussels sprouts. Not the same plant that I used as Bud of the Day a few weeks ago - that one was broken in one of our fierce wind storms. This plant has had buds on it for ages, and I wonder if it is ever going to bloom.

Wildlife:

Random Bugs:

 I spotted this little wasp(?) in the recycling bin on the porch.

 I wish I had been able to get a better shot of this leaf hopper. It looks pretty.

 I saw a lot of candy striped leaf hoppers today, mostly on this catalpa(?) tree, one of the few that still has leaves. There are three on this leaf. They all declined to have a close-up picture taken, though.

 I haven't seen one of these in a few days.

 Okay, one leaf hopper let me take a picture.

I spotted this cottony blob hanging on a leaf a while ago:

 It's kind of torn open now. I can't tell if these are eggs, bugs, pupae, or what - though I have not heard of any bugs that pupate together. Of course, my not having heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This picture is an arachnid two-fer - spider and mite.

I saw an unusually large number of mites today. Meaning more than two.