Raindrops Keep Falling On My Lens

I had a situation in the backyard today that was fairly rare for this summer - well, for this entire year, really. I had to wait for a break in the rain to go outside to do my bug walk. For as yucky as the day was we had a disappointingly small amount of rain, but we need it, so it was a good problem to have, waiting for it to stop.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Grasshopper

 It's a nymph - see the incompletely developed wings.

Random Bugs:

 It was raining a little bit when I took this picture, but I knew if I didn't take it then, the shot would be lost. This caterpillar has just molted and what you see behind it on the branch is the skin it just shimmied out of. Also, in the crook of the branch it looks (when I zoom in) like a dead weevil and maybe part of another bug. That would be unrelated to the caterpillar, though. The reason the picture looks hazy is because it was so humid the camera lens fogged up.

 Lately I have seen a few ladybeetle pupae on the porch in various places (this is on the storm door).

It looks like one eclosed today.

 Here's the largest of the furcula caterpillars, covered in rain (again with fogged up lens). When I looked at the picture I was slightly alarmed for the caterpillar's sake because its face is covered by a water droplet, but then I remembered that they don't breath through their mouths, and don't have a nose - the breathe through holes in their sides called spiracles. And they only breathe when they are moving.

 I took this picture because I like the look of the flower from close up, but looking at it on the computer I see it is full of spider threads, and I am not sure, but there might be a tiny, pink looper caterpillar. I know that there are pink loopers that feed on these flowers, so it could be.

 An eastern tiger swallowtail that still has her tails.

 Look at all that blue - definitely female. She does have a rip in her right hind wing.

 The primrose moths are still hanging around.

 White hickory tussock moth caterpillar

 Some sort of Hemiptera

 Milkweed tussock moth caterpillar

 Moth on the kitchen window. I saw it from inside the house; it was drawn to the light in the kitchen. The other side of it had a nice stripe, but I couldn't get that shot from outside. Also, the moth spent a lot of time flying around, and landing on me and my camera. This is the best I could get.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I almost grabbed this spider.

It was on a vine, in a dark part of the yard (rainy days in the woods can have quite a gloomy cast to them), and I reached for the vine and startled the spider, which made it move, and alerted me to its presence.

 It has a sowbug in its grip.

 

 

 This kind of looks like a predatory showdown with a spider and an ambush bug on opposite ends of the street, but in reality I doubt they can see each other.