Chilly

Today's bug walk was something of an experiment, though it was driven more my practicalities than curiosity. I had to go out looking for bugs in the morning, instead of waiting for the afternoon when it would be warm, and therefore I went out saying to myself, "I wonder if I will find any bugs with the temperature at only 48ºF." I thought the answer would be no, but I was wrong. There were, indeed, bugs out and about on this chilly morning. It was probably not 48ºF in the sunshine; my weather sensor is in a perpetually shady location, but it was still quite chilly. And yet, the bugs were out.

Some of them, anyway.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Dragonfly. I have not seen very many dragonflies this summer, and though I have been seeing them a bit more lately, they have mostly been extremely uncooperative, so I was very happy to see this one, and even happier that it sat for me to take a picture of it. I wonder if the lack of rain this year has anything to do with the lower number of dragonflies - they lay their eggs in water, and pass the larval stage as aquatic hunters (devouring mosquito larvae, wonderful little darlings). No rain means no standing water, which means nowhere to lay eggs, and no mosquito larvae to eat.

Random Bugs:

 I was surprised to find this candy-striped leaf hopper. In the past it has always seemed that 60ºF is the threshold for seeing them - and this one was in the shade, where it was quite chilly.

 Bumblebee basking in the sun on my chaise. I guess it knows what a chaise is for.

 Stink bug

 Oh, you know what this is. But in case you have never been here before, it's a white hickory tussock moth caterpillar

 With dwindling supplies of goldenrod flowers, the bees are relying on asters, which still have some blooms left.