Bug Spotting In The Wider World

I went to a wedding this evening, and it proved to me that I am somewhat bug-obsessed. Because I noticed that a dragonfly flew over the happy couple's heads as they said their vows, and during dinner I was watching the fireflies outside the window.

Because of the wedding, I am very late getting to writing this blog, so I am not going to say much, but I did get up early this morning so that I would be able to do a bug walk before we had to leave (the wedding was in the evening, but a long drive away), and so... here it is. The result of my early rising.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Flower longhorn beetle. I don't know what species.  Obviously this is the time of year for longhorn beetles, and I don't just say that because I posted two yesterday. Facebook "shared a memory" today of this date two years ago, and it was two flower longhorn beetles that were Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day that day.

Here's another one from today that was much less cooperative (you'll see why I say that), and therefore doesn't get to share the BBotD title today:

I'm not even sure if this is a flower longhorn beetle. This is the best look I got.

Random Bugs:

 Fly

 Tree cricket

 

 You can tell from the underdeveloped wings that it is not fully mature.

 I love the dragon-ish face of tree crickets.

 Another, smaller, even less mature tree cricket on a leaf near the first one.

 I know I have posted pictures of candy striped leaf hoppers many times before, but this is the first time I have seen one pose its legs like this. When I spotted it, it was using its rear legs to rub its head. Then it did this, which I thought might be meant as an intimidating gesture toward me, like Japanese beetles do. But as I said, I have never seen one do this, so I don't know.

 Buffalo tree hopper. First adult I have seen this year. Actually, I take that back - I think I saw some in early spring. So... first one I have seen in months. Possibly one of this year's nymphs matured?

 Bee and beetle in lily

 Flies

 The elusive swallowtail (that is my descriptor, not the name of the species of swallowtail).

 I like this bad picture because it shows the position of the wings in mid-flap.

 I went outside to get food for the eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar that I adopted, and on the host tree I found another eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar, this one in its final instar. I brought it in the house, and I know that it is getting ready to pupate because it did one of the things caterpillars do to get ready for that - it emptied out its digestive system.

There's no spider in this web, so I assume no one will be freaked out by the picture. I have no idea what the decision process is for spiders when they are choosing a place to build a web, but I think this is probably a good place. This is a knot in a tree trunk where I often find bugs, so it seems like a sure bet for catching bugs in a web. You can see one hopper's remains there.