Secret Identities

Some bugs have secrets. You see them sitting there, you see what they look like, and then they fly, and all of a sudden you see that they are completely different underneath, like a superhero shedding the clothes of an assumed identity to reveal the hidden hero costume underneath. It might be a black beetle that raises its elytra to reveal a bright red, pink, or yellow body underneath. It might be a moth that rests with its drab brown wings tight against its body, hiding vividly patterned underwings that are only visible when it spreads its wings to fly. Or it might be the Sulfur-winged grasshopper, that is drab and brown when you see it sitting on the ground, but when it flies, is a bright yellow figure flitting over the grass.

The bright yellow undersides of today's Backyard Bug of the Day are what helped me to find it, seeing that flash as it flew, but I only got pictures of it on the ground (which was not easy–repeatedly I tried to walk to it to take a picture of it on the ground, and when I got within about 5 feet, it flew off. I chased it across the yard this way. My tenacity surprised even me), so unfortunately, you will only see the drab brown, but I have let you in on its superhero secret underneath.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Sulfur-winged grasshopper

Amphibian of the Day:

 I found this one by almost stepping on it; it jumped to get out of the way. It blends in really well with leaf litter.

Other bugs:

 Bee in lavender

 Egg sac. Possibly spider, but since you can't actually see a spider here, I thought it was safe to put it here instead of hidden below.

 A couple of long-legged flies

It would be understandable for you to think, based on what you see on this blog, that I hardly ever see butterflies in my backyard. That would be incorrect, however; I see butterflies all the time, several every day, of a variety of species. Sometimes I just sit and watch them flitting about. But I almost never get pictures of them, because they are extremely uncooperative. Case in point:

 I think this is a red-spotted purple. And I think it has been flying around my backyard laying eggs on the leaves of trees. I see it flying, and landing, and staying put for a bit, and then flying to another leaf, on another tree... this continues, and it is almost always somewhere I can barely see, much less get a picture. But then it will come down and fly circles around me–literally, I stand there, and it does a few laps around my head, and I ask it to land somewhere that I can take its picture, and it does not oblige. It is so pretty, though, and at least I have the joy of watching it fly, and knowing that those eggs will become caterpillars that will NOT kill my trees, but will become butterflies (well, probably not all of them, or even most of them, as these things go, but I still like to think of it that way).

 Quite a small wasp nest, about the size of my fist

 Plume moth

 Leaf hopper

 My backyard is absolutely FULL of moths, mostly little ones. They are in the grass, and on the trees, and hiding under leaves, and when I walk by they flutter up and then alight somewhere else, and when I try to get closer for a picture, they flit away. That part is frustrating, but there is a great deal of charm in walking along a path with such flighty companions. And there are a LOT of them–on a path about 50 feet long I probably see close to 50 of them.

 Some cooperate...

I know this looks like the Ghost of Bugs Past, but it's the discarded exoskeleton of a hopper nymph. I am sure you recognize it from recent posts. As they grow, they shed their skin a couple of times, and I find these around the backyard.

I just realized I didn't see any spiders today... It was a bit of a weird day of bug searching; my house is situated toward the front of my property, so there's a lot more backyard than front yard, but most of the pictures I took today were of front yard bugs. Well, maybe not most, but at least half.