Counting Prolegs

I rescued a moth tonight. We went to get take-out for dinner, and I saw the moth on the wall as I was waiting for my food. It had probably come in the door when someone came in or out - they do that at our house all the time. But you can't have a bug in a restaurant, and I know that it is very likely that if anyone else saw the moth it would have met a squishy fate, so I captured it in my hands and brought it outside. And it didn't even say thank you. Fortunately for the moth, it's only slightly chilly out tonight - there are even crickets chirping.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Not a caterpillar. Some other kind of larva. I would say sawfly larva, just because I know that there are sawfly larva that look basically like this, but I don't know that there aren't other larvae that look like this, so it's just an assumption on my part that that's what it is. Needless to say, none of my bug books have an extensive array of larvae to assist in identifying.

 See how there are so many prolegs? That's how you know it's not a caterpillar.

 Also not caterpillar eyes.

Random Bugs:

 These flies were out in abundance today, all over the yard. On plants, on the ground, in the air...

 Evereywhere

 There were a few confrontations...

 A lot of swarming... though I only managed to get one in this picture. You'll just have to believe me that there were little clouds of them all over the place.

There were quite a few of these, too:

 Those eyes deserve a zoom-in.

Other than those, the variety of bugs to be found today was underwhelming. In fact, this is it:

 Cricket

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Jumping spider

 I don't know what this one is, but I love the way it tries to hide by making itself small. I can still see you, spider.

 Yes, I can still see you.

 Yep, still can.

Orb weaver in its bower.