Hot and Dry

I'm sorry, it's just too hot to think. So I am not thinking.

And have I mentioned that we need rain?

And the leaves are coming down so fast - every day this spider web has more leaves in it.

It's like we've got summer and autumn at the same time.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Another new bug for me! That's two days in a row. I found this beetle on a milkweed plant. I looked it up and it is called... milkweed leaf beetle! Milkweed has more insects that are specific to it than any other plant I have encountered. I read in Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America that these beetles snip the veins in the milkweed leaf to drain out the toxic latex (the milky substance inside milkweed plants) before eating the leaves.

Random Bugs:

 I keep seeing these really tiny moths fluttering around the trunks of trees, and then hiding themselves in cracks in the bark. It's hard to get a picture of them, because they don't stop moving - until they are hidden from view. This one is in full view - though a little out of focus - but still a bit tricky to spot.

 It's definitely the season for white hickory tussock moth caterpillars to molt.

 Brown marmorated stink bug. I finally looked up what marmorated means recently. It means that it looks streaked like marble. Hmm... okay. Anyway, I know it's invasive, but it is still an interesting looking bug.

 Robber fly

Cabbage white butterflies:

 I don't know if this is fighting or flirting...

 Anyway, that's our Brussels sprouts they are flitting over, so I was not exactly happy to see them there, but it's hard to be mad at butterflies.

 I think this is a winter firefly. The firefly season, as in the part of the summer in which fireflies light up the night, is over, but winter fireflies are not a part of that. They don't even have bioluminescence in their adult forms. I mostly see them in the early spring - I don't think I have ever seen one this time of year before.

 I just missed the moment when a tiny beetle crawled over this hopper, much to the hopper's consternation.

 That doesn't seem like much of a meal for this assassin bug.

 Bumblebee

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I was hoping for something dramatic here, but the spider turned away.