Pleasant Surprises

I was out all day today, and didn't get a chance to do my bug walk until evening, and therefore wasn't expecting to find much of anything today. Today proved to be one of those days that verifies my philosophy that low expectations are the key to happiness, because I found more bugs than I expected, and they weren't all the same old same old. It was perhaps not as buggy a day as I would have found in Junes past, but compared to how things have been lately, I am pleased with my bug finds for today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I don't know what this is, but if I were to guess, I would say some kind of beetle larva. [Edit - I asked on the insect group on facebook and was told it is a jumping bristletail, although from what I have read about bristletails this was not in the kind of place you usually find them, specifically damp places. I found it high and dry on a tree trunk.] It is quite small - less than half an inch long, I would guess. Anyway, whatever it is, it is new to me.

Random Bugs:

 Ants tending to a hopper. I don't know for a fact, but it looks to me like this is a nymph in the process of molting.

 Beetle

 Plume moth

 This sort of looks like a springtail, and it sort of doesn't. In case you want to understand the scale here, that is an unripe blueberry it is perched on.

 Caterpillar

 Caterpillar close-up. It appears to have a parasite on its face.

 I think this is one of those hopper nymphs that are so pale white, but it's developing color. I don't think I have ever seen one looking like this before.

 A blue plant hopper - not its name, just a description of it.

 

 There will be more soon, apparently...

 

 Five borers on a leaf...

Making more

  Beetle

 

Firefly on a tree trunk. It is a very rare thing for me to find a firefly during the daytime (other than winter fireflies, which are diurnal - and don't glow). It was getting close to dusk, though, so maybe it was getting ready for an evening of flying and flashing. You can just barely see the light organ (I am sure it has a name, but I don't know what it is).

 Loosening up the wings...

See the light organ?

 Flying away!

 There must be something pupating in this neatly folded leaf envelope.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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