Watching Things Grow

I don't have anything to say today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Great spangled fritillary butterfly

 This is one of those butterflies that has quite a different look on opposite sides of its wings - unfortunately, though this one was pretty cooperative, this is the best shot I got showing the underside.

Sometimes it is possible to see something like a story unfolding in amongst the flowers. Here is a honeybee...

 That other insect is a thick-headed fly. Thick-headed flies are parasitic to bees (though maybe not honeybees, but go with me for the sake of the story) - they lay their eggs in the bodies of adult bees. You would think that the bee was in a dangerous spot here, too close to an insect that might harm her, but...

 The fly has already fallen victim to another insect lurking between the blooms.

 And what I did not realize when I took the picture, but saw later, is that there are two ambush bugs there - the female is feeding on the thick-headed fly (you can see her proboscis as she tries to find a spot to insert it to suck out the liquefied innards of the fly), and the male is on her back.

Random Bugs:

 Robber fly

 

 Looper caterpillar with plant debris stuck all over itself as camouflage. It is holding onto the plant with its back legs.

 You can see the face and front legs better here.

 Katydid

 Immature stinkbug

 Weevil

 Tree cricket

 Moth. I saw the same kind of moth on the same tree yesterday (slightly different location). I wonder if it is the same one.

 Immature milkweed bugs

 

 Furcula caterpillars

 This one is a little bit behind the others in development - it is visibly smaller. But while some of the others molted yesterday (or was it the day before? I don't remember), this one molted today. As it is facing the molted skin I wonder if it eats the skin as monarch caterpillars do. Note the curled tendrils at the end of the "tails."

 See them retracting?

 

 I have no idea what those are for.

 I said at the beginning of this blog that I had nothing to say today, and I have changed my mind. I do have something to say, and it is this - nature is an absolute joy. There is so much fascination in being able to walk out my backyard every day and see these insects developing and changing. They are living out their caterpillar lives, and I get to watch. It is a magnificent gift.

 

 Assassin bug nymph...

 ... and imago (adult)

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Tiny spider building a web

Bowl and doily spider