Bad Decisions Make Bad Days

I made a bit of a tactical error when deciding when to do my bug walk today. I waited to see if it would get nicer, and instead it got colder and gloomier, going from 62ºF at 10:00 in the morning to 59ºF by 3:00 in the afternoon. So, I had a hard time finding any bugs today. I feel like they were all smarter than me, and chose not to go outside. Except that they live there. I do wonder where they all are on days like today when I can't find them. The ever-increasing number of species I have been seeing means that things are waking up and emerging from the winter, whether they overwintered as adults, or eggs, or pupae, but then it gets chilly today (and remember I am talking about it being in the 50s at 3 in the afternoon. Remember that yesterday was close to 90ºF?). Anyway, most of what I did find were things I did not want to find.

Exhibit A, B, and C:

 Gypsy moth caterpillars! GAH!

 They'd be cute if they weren't so horrible.

 I found three of them, in different places in the backyard. Two of them were not on trees. When they hatch, they can crawl away to find somewhere to eat, but they can also send out a thread of silk that is caught by the wind and carries them away. This spreads the little monsters to other trees, to help reduce competition for food. Horrid creatures.

Exhibit D:

 And another horrid creature. I am especially annoyed by ticks right now because I have a very itchy tick bite on my leg that I got yesterday. I wear my tick-repellent pants when I am out doing my bug walks, but I went for a walk in an arboretum later, and then a brief walk in my backyard wearing normal pants. Somewhere along the line I picked up one two of these, and one of them was attached by the time I found it. Loathsome beings.

Okay, now for the good stuff. Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is how I spotted it, a tiny, funny face hidden behind a leaf. Well, I guess that's not its face, because it's the top of its head, but you get the idea.

 Some kind of sawfly

 Check out those mouthparts!

I have only one other insect for you today (seriously, that is all I found, other than a few ants):

 When I spotted this tiny looper caterpillar it was dangling from the leaf, and I wasn't sure if it was a caterpillar or a bit of plant matter. I was pretty sure it was plant matter, but I figured I might as well give it a closer look, so I used a stick to grab the thread it was dangling from, and when I did, the thread got longer. Bits of plant matter don't do that, so I knew it was alive!

I didn't see any other insects, but I did find out two things. I found out that the birds nesting in the thicket are cardinals (got a little too close again, but this time I saw the mother bird before she flew away. Before I assumed it was robins in the nest). I also found out something I have been wondering about since last fall, and it involves this tree:

 This is a young sapling that last summer hosted a whole bunch of caterpillars (I can't remember what they were called, but I knew at the time... dark marked something or other?). The caterpillars ate pretty much all of the leaves off of this tree. I let them do this for a number of reasons: they weren't invasive caterpillars like gypsy moths, I like to let nature take its course as a general thing, and I was curious what effect it would have on the sapling to have all of its leaves eaten off. The tree is also growing in a place where I don't really want a tree to be growing, but I am too fond of trees to cut it down, and like I said, decided to let nature take its course. And in the end, it was left with only a couple of small, partial leaves. Well, now I know that the tree was able to recover. It has a bunch of new, baby leaves. It remains to be seen if it will attract new caterpillars this year.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 These are awesome spiders that like to pretend that they are part of a branch as a way to avoid being seen...

... but today I discovered that if the "I'm a twig" defense doesn't work out, they have a much more aggressive posture they can take against possible attackers (which would be me, in this case, because this spider doesn't know how I feel about not squishing spiders).

Differences

I don't think I mentioned it yesterday, but it's been hot here the last couple of days. Yesterday was in the mid-80s, and today we came close to 90ºF. This is a tough time of year to deal with heat because though the trees are starting to leaf out, most of their leaves aren't big or numerous enough yet to actually provide shade.

 

 Very pretty, but those leaves have a lot of growing to do.

However, it's been sunny, which is a nice change, and buggy. Not as buggy as I expected, maybe, but most of what I saw today were things I have not seen so far this year (including a pearl crescent butterfly, which you won't be seeing because it wouldn't sit for a picture), and I always love seeing different things.

 I have a rarity for Backyard Bug of the Day today. Not that it's a rare insect, according to my bug books it's pretty common, though it's an insect I've only seen a few times in the years I've been studying my backyard bugs. But it is rare in that there is a very obvious sexual dimorphism in this type of insect (a difference in shape/body between male and female), and I actually (I think) saw both male and female today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Velvet ant. This is the female. Velvet ants aren't really ants, they are wasps (with a reportedly horrifically painful sting), but the female has no wings. She makes burrows in the ground for her young, and feeds them other bugs.This one in particular was scurrying at an impressive pace, occasionally disappearing under bits of moss on the ground, and then coming back out. But she never stopped moving, which is why I don't have a closer picture. That and the fact that given she has such a painful sting, I didn't want to annoy her by trying to make her sit still.

The male is also hard to photograph.

 Here is the male.

 Just kidding. I got a slightly better picture. The male has wings and flies low to the ground, looking for females, and feeding on flowers. The male (as with most wasps, I think) does not sting. Nor does he pose for pictures very often. I should say that while I am 100% sure that the picture above is a female velvet ant, I am not sure this is a male velvet ant. Or if they are the same species. But I think this is a male velvet ant. And given the presence of a female in this vicinity (I found them in the same patch of backyard), I would guess they are the same species.

It's just really hard to get a picture of these, male OR female!

Usually when we have a lot of rain, we then get a lot of mushrooms. That hasn't happened yet this year, but I did find one really cool one today:

Random bugs:

 I spotted these two beetles (some kind of flower longhorns?) when I went out to get the mail, and had to go right back in to get my camera.

 Assassin bug nymph

 I think this is some kind of weevil, and one I don't think I've seen before, but this is the best look I got.

 There are some really big ants on some of the trees in the backyard.

Sometimes I try to take pictures without bugs in them, because I just want a picture of a flower, but I have a hard time doing that:

 Trying to photograph dandelions, and I get ants...

 Do you see the bug in this picture?

 It's gone here...

 ... and back again... Photobombing bug.

 This formidable specimen was on the front porch. I shooed it away after I took the picture. This is not something I want building a nest on my front porch.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This is a terrible picture of a beautiful spider. This is a bold jumping spider, bold being the name and most definitely NOT the personality. This one was quite shy. Which is why I only got terrible pictures. But it had chelicerae of the most gorgeous blue that I had to share the two least horrible pictures I took with you.

Hit or Miss

I took mostly terrible pictures today. I'm going to show some of them to you anyway, just so you can see what was out there. I didn't get to spend anywhere near as much time as I wanted to in the backyard today, and the pictures I got represent only a tiny fraction of the insects I saw (including two butterflies. I haven't seen any butterflies all week until today), but since most of the insects were on the move, in the air, I didn't get pictures of them.

There is now a part of the backyard I am probably going to have to avoid for a while; I startled a bird away from this nest, so until whatever eggs it has laid have hatched, I'll had to give this area a wide berth.

The first bad picture I'm going to show you is the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This incredible moth was attracted to the porch light.

Other bugs:

 Squash bug. That's the name of the bug, not what you should do to it.

 Visited by an ant

 This was just meant to be a picture of the crab apple tree in flower, but I realize it is also a bad picture of some insects. Can you see them?

 Bee on crab apple bloom

Crane fly on crab apple tree. As you look at this picture I want you to keep in mind that there are a lot of bugs I took pictures of that you're not going to see because the pictures are so bad.

Ladybeetle in crab apple blossom

 Click beetle. Finally, a bug that would sit still!

 Six-spotted tiger beetle. This is the BEST picture I got of this beetle today. Last spring the six-spotted tiger beetles used to frequent this rock. I guess they like it this year, too. Maybe I'll get a better picture another day.

Beetle

 As I mentioned, I was in a hurry today when I did my bug walk, and at that time I didn't see any of the beetles I saw so many of yesterday. Later in the evening, at dusk, I went out with my camera again, and found quite a few of them, though not as many as yesterday. This is on the same raspberry vine where I found them yesterday.

And that, as they say, is all the pictures fit to print. Or fit to post, anyway.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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