The Bugs in the Backyard: How I Do Things

I forgot to note the arrival of meteorological summer on June 1st, but really, until the last couple of days it hasn't really felt all that summery. Today was definitely summer. I'm ready for summer bugs to appear. I'm talking to you, fireflies.

I've probably explained before how I choose which bug should be Backyard Bug of the Day, but today's choices illustrate some of the things I have to ponder while making my choice. If I find a bug I have never seen before, that is a pretty automatic choice for BBotD status. But I have to have a decent picture of it at least, if not a good one. Having a really good picture of a bug helps me to decide on a BBotD if I don't have anything new, and new things are a rarity in this 6th summer of this weird daily activity (though I do still find them, to my amazement). I do sort of have a rule that a specific species can only be BBotD once per year, but that is sometimes broken if I think I have a good reason, like showing different stages of development, or male and female of a species that is really sexually dimorphic. So today's quandary was this: do I choose a new bug that I don't have a good picture of, or do I choose a bug that I have seen before (though not a lot) because I got a good picture and it is normally hard to get a picture of it at all? I might never see the new bug again, and I might never get a good picture of the other bug again... So that's how I ended up with Co-Bugs of the Day today, two of them. It could have been three if another bug had been more cooperative, but more on that later. You will perhaps be amazed to hear that I actually looked up both of today's BBotDs, and managed to find identifications for both of them.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

I am fairly sure that this is a new species for me. It is a beetle, Order Coleoptera, Family Endomychidae, a Handsome Fungus Beetle. Handsome is part of the name of the family, not my commentary on the insect itself. According to Insects of New England and New York by Tom Murray, this appears to be the species Mycetina perpulchra. Sadly, the book doesn't give a common name, which I always prefer, because they are more interesting, and I am not a scientist.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Little Wood Satyr butterfly

Periodically I like to post pictures to show how difficult it can be to take pictures of bugs, just so you will be impressed that I manage to do it every day with some measure of success. Just kidding, I post them just to show what it's like, and because I think it's funny. So, here's the bug that would be Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3 if it had just sat still for me:

It's some kind of plant hopper, and I am pretty sure it's one I have not seen before, making it a shoo-in for BBotD status. But I didn't get a decent picture of it at all. So here's a demonstration of one of my photography techniques: if I am not familiar with a bug and how it will act, I take my first picture from a little farther back just so I can at least get one to document what I have found, in case if flies/hops/scurries away before I get to take another. But the problem here is that this bug is on a tall stalk of grass, and it was a little bit breezy, so the grass swayed and the picture ended up out of focus.

The bug didn't move, so I tried a little closer. Still windy.

It still didn't move, so I got closer. Still windy.

At this point since the bug had not moved yet I thought maybe I could hold onto the piece of grass to stabilize it (another technique), but the bug didn't like that, and started to crawl away. At least part of it is in focus here...

Still crawling...

Turned around to crawl back...

Great, wind AND a crawling bug.

Not a bad shot, but it doesn't really show what the bug looks like.

Great, now my hand is in the shot.

Still moving

Sigh...

Nope.

Just after this is hopped away.

This next shot was pure luck, I can take no credit for it.

That is not where the bee was when I focused the camera. It flew, and happened to end up in focus anyway. I am pretty psyched about it, since I thought that I had missed it altogether, that it had flown out of shot before the shutter clicked.

Here's another picture for you to be impressed with my mad bug finding skills:

Do you see the bug? Remember, when I am outside with my camera, no one is pointing out tree trunks with bugs on them for me. You have an advantage here.

Here's the bug

I think this is an immature cockroach, but I am not sure. The undeveloped wings surely mean it is an immature something.

A pair of leaf hoppers

Larva of some kind–sawfly, I think.

More larvae, of some ants who moved into the package bin after I hosed it down yesterday, and seemed perturbed when I suggested it was not a good place for them to live.