Go Find Bugs

I forgot to tell you last night that this blog is going on hiatus for two weeks. If you want to see bugs, you'll have to go outside and look for them yourself. I hope you do, and that you find something incredible, something that surprises you, and something that astounds you. I hope you find thing beautiful and curious.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Candy striped leaf hopper

Dewy eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar. I released it back into the wild because I thought it would be better off there.

Emerging Renewed

Today I saw something I have never seen before. It wasn't on the level of seeing the Aurora Borealis, or seeing fireflies for the first time, but it was a pretty exciting find. It is something that happens all around me, all the time, and I have just never happened to have the right timing to witness it for myself. What was this amazing event?

I saw an assassin bug molting:

 I have found discarded insect exoskeletons many, many times, but this is the first time I have ever seen one in the process of emerging from one. I am pretty sure I took a picture of this exact assassin bug the other day, and it is very obviously bigger than it was then.

 It's a slow process. I didn't see past this. I did go back a little later to check on it, and it was gone - though the exoskeleton remained. It was then, however, that I encountered today's...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Dragonfly. I tried to figure out what kind this is, but the information in my bug book was confusing, and the pictures were too small to really help, so... I don't know.

 However, I can tell you it was extraordinarily cooperative.

 

 It was a great find - my sister's favorite bug (only the second dragonfly I have seen this year), in my favorite color!

 I am loading you up with pictures because it is a beautiful bug, and because it was so obliging in letting me take pictures from so many angles.

I witnessed something else new today, that wasn't as thrilling:

 I opened the garden shed and found a female gypsy moth laying eggs. I guess I didn't manage to remove all of the pupae from the shed - or a new one crawled in after I removed the others. Female gypsy moths don't fly, even though they have wings (though I did see a few of them wave their wings at me today, probably in consternation), so when they emerge from their chrysalis they remain very close by to mate and then lay their eggs. This one's chrysalis was just below her on the shed door.

I found some eggs that had already been laid on a tree. There was also a dead female moth on the path very near this tree, and it might be the one that laid the eggs. After they lay their eggs, they don't have much to do. I don't know how soon they die after that, but they have a short lifespan as adults.

More eggs being laid on a tree...

... And more...

... and eggs being laid on the wheel of my lawnmower. I wonder if this means that there was a chrysalis on the wheel, which would mean it was on there last week when I mowed the lawn.

 Not all insect eggs are such an unwelcome sight as the gypsy moth. Of course, I don't know what these are, but as long as they aren't something that wants to bite me, I think they're beautiful. This cluster was hanging from a leaf.

 I don't know if this is a wasp or... something else.

 It fluttered its wings furiously for a few seconds, stopped, and then flew away.

 Tumbling flower beetle

 I think this bug is eating bird droppings.

 I was taking a picture of the center of a purple coneflower and I noticed that some of the miniscule white specks on it were moving - meaning they were insects (or arthropods, anyway. They could be mites, which are arachnids). Can't see it?

 Here, I circled it for you.

 How about zoomed in?

 Plume moth

 Some day I will figure out what these are...

 Bee

 

 Leaf hopper

 The eastern tiger swallowtail molted last night, and its new skin is loose and baggy, giving it room to grow, and making it look like a little kid in footy pajamas that are hand-me-downs that are too big.

 

 

 This is the chrysalis of the other eastern tiger swallowtail I found the other day (it chrysalized on a piece of newspaper.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Bowl and doily spider

Flower crab spider. I somehow ended up with this dangling from my arm as I mowed the lawn.

Going 'Round and 'Round

Today required a couple of attempts to have a bug walk, because the first time I went out, as soon as I stepped out the door I heard thunder in the distance. I went back into the house and checked out the weather maps, and after a while went back out again - I had a sort of urgency about a line of storms that was headed across the state, but wasn't near yet. But when I walked around the backyard looking for bugs, I couldn't find very many, except for the gnats that were circling my head. So, when I was finished with my bug walk, I walked around the backyard again. And that's when I found most of the bugs for today's blog, including the Backyard Bug of the Day (which I also heard this evening after it got dark).

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This was only a chance spotting for me. It blended in really well.

 It's a katydid.

 

 It's immature - note the wings are not fully developed.

 Katydids always look annoyed.

Random Bugs:

 Honeybee in balloonflower

 Beetle

 Still don't know what kind of nymph this is.

 Ant with one of those tiny moths that are everywhere flitting about.

Caterpillar - I tried to look it up in the new caterpillar guide I just got, but I couldn't find it. Failed me already.

Speaking of caterpillars, the eastern tiger swallowtail I found the other day became a pupa by the end of the next day.

 Aphid

 Bee

 I don't always have to go looking for bugs. Sometimes they come inside to meet me. This beetle was in the bathroom sink. I had to shoo it to the side to wash my hands.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Flower crab spider

 

 A tiny beetle passed by several times, but the spider either didn't notice or didn't care.