Seeking

I turn to nature for comfort, but I need more comfort at the moment than November can offer. I spent some time sitting outside today, because it was a beautiful day, and there were March flies dancing all around, but it did not lift my spirits. I did not find any inspiration in the backyard today. So... here's the pictures I took, in order.

Again there is no Backyard Bug of the Day.

 This is probably the same caterpillar from yesterday. It was on the same chair, but about 6 inches away from where it had been sitting yesterday. Which again leads me to wonder why caterpillars do what they do. There's nothing to eat on that chair, so, why bother moving from one spot to another just to sit there?

Suddenly there are a lot of aphids on a couple of the small trees:

 With their attendant ants.

 Aphids of several stages of development.

 Aphid and wood louse?

 One aphid with wings

 This was the only picture I got of this hopper. Before I could get a closer shot, it hopped onto my camera, and then onto my head, and then off to somewhere else.

 Tree cricket

 Rove beetle

Candy striped leaf hoppers on the winged euonymus:

They look so pretty there.

 I have been thinking lately about the fact that I have not seen a woolly bear caterpillar in my yard so far this fall. I finally found one today, and it's dead. It's been that kind of week.

I'm sorry that this blog isn't better than it has been lately. But at least today there were a lot of bugs.