Swarm Weather

I didn't choose a Backyard Bug of the Day today, because I didn't think there was a bug of the ones I saw that was... I don't want to say worthy, but right for it. Most of the bugs have already been chosen this year. I didn't get great pictures of anything. I actually missed getting pictures of more bugs than I actually succeeded with - I saw several moths today, but you won't be seeing any pictures of them here. There was nothing surprising, nothing new, nothing that makes me say, "THIS is the bug for today." So, I'll show you what I saw, and... that's that.

If March flies (at least, what I think are March flies) had not been Backyard Bug of the Day sometime last week, they could be it today, because they were the dominant insect in the backyard today. Of course, that is true about every day this week. Today there were even more than before, I think - definitely more than at the beginning of the week. Yesterday they were mostly swarming, but today they were mostly sitting on plants (though they were definitely swarming. And I walked right into a couple of those swarms)

 I think there are seven visible here.

 

 These three seemed to be peacefully sharing this leaf. All males.

 One of them maybe didn't like to share though...

These two (female on the left, male on the right) were getting along much better.

And then there's this one.

 There were quite a lot of candy striped leaf hoppers around today, but they were pretty feisty, and most of them either flew or hopped away, or scurried to the underside of the leaves when I tried to take their picture.

Beetle on mountain laurel

Ants working on construction

Arachnid Appreciation:

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