Hammock Time

I spent some time this beautiful summer evening lying in the hammock. My husband hung up the hammocks a little over a month ago, but this was the first time I have lain in one this year because I could not relax while having caterpillar poop dropping on me from the trees. But now, that's not happening, and it was wonderful. Granted, the view includes a lot of dead caterpillars on the trunks of the trees, but I can live with that.

Speaking of caterpillars, I would like to remind you that I don't hate all caterpillars, and that is why there is a caterpillar as Backyard Bug of the Day:

This is a new one for me, and I don't know what it is. It almost looks like two different caterpillars put together wrong, one kind on top, and another kind underneath. I think it is resting on a silk hammock on the leaf. Well, I did say it was a nice evening for lying in the hammock.

Other Bugs:

Cabbage white butterfly not cooperating with me.

The milkweed are in bloom...

So far they are attracting a lot of bees.

This particular bee spent at least an hour on this flower. My husband and I were doing yard work around this area of the yard, including my husband using a weed whacker all around this flower, and the bee stayed the whole time. It moved around on the bunch of blooms, but it stayed there as long as we were there.

Some kind of Hemiptera in a day lily

Two very different hopper nymphs

Not all of the GMCs are dying. Some are pupating. I am sure that somewhere along the line you have seen the chrysalis of a monarch butterfly, at least in a picture if not in person. It's probably the most iconic chrysalis, with that lovely jade green color. If you are like me, you assumed that the chrysalis shell (membrane? I don't know what the outer covering of a chrysalis is called) is green, but what I found out a few years ago is that the chrysalis shell is clear, and it is what is inside it that is green. Specifically, the caterpillar has turned into green goo, and that is what you are seeing, through the clear chrysalis. In fact, you can tell that the butterfly is soon to emerge because you can see the butterfly in its black and orange glory through the clear chrysalis. But not all chrysalides are clear; case in point, the brown shell of the gypsy moth chrysalis (with hairs sticking out of it). I can tell you right now, though, that inside is green goo, just like the monarch butterfly. You can imagine for yourself how I found that out.

Honeysuckle borer

Beetle

Plume moth. These are usually also attracted to milkweed flowers, and this one is poised on the bottom of a milkweed leaf.

Ladybeetle

Leaf hopper

Moth

Doing some trimming of vines, I happened to rouse a firefly from its daytime resting place.

You can see the part that glows at night.

I also found this while trimming vines, and when I did, I had to stop trimming. This nest is about 6 inches off the ground, hidden among the stems of a bunch of flowers. I haven't seen parent birds in this area, and no one was making a ruckus about me working there, so I wonder if the nest has been abandoned. Two of the eggs are broken, but there are no young birds.

Spittle bug, I think.

 I think this is a weevil.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Do you see the spider?

This spider was interesting to watch, because it was acting like a circus acrobat, one of those performers who hang from a hoop, or a rope, or something like that, and they just keep changing poses. That's what this spider was doing, posing different ways while hanging on the bottom of this leaf.

Then it dropped to the leaf below, I think because I got too close. This is a milkweed plant, and that would normally be a great place to be as a spider, but this particular milkweed has no flowers on it, not even buds, so there were no bugs there. But I am sure some will eventually come along.

This was almost an incredible picture; on the same flower petal as this spider was a candy striped leaf hopper, one of the really vividly colored ones. It would have been so amazing to get that colorful bug against this background. But what is really interesting is that the bug and the spider were just sitting there looking at each other, less than half an inch away from each other, before my presence appears to have scared the hopper into hopping away. I hope I didn't deprive the spider of its dinner...