Sunny Day

I was outside this evening, enjoying some sky time and looking for fireflies (of which I may have seen one, but it was only one flash out of the corner of my eye, so I am not sure if I saw it or not. Sometimes you see what you want to see, if you know what I mean), and I was so focused on the visual, what I was looking for that I didn't realize how quiet it was until I heard the chirp of a single cricket. There wasn't any nighttime noise other than that cricket, no peepers, no other insect sounds, not even any other crickets. It has been cold at night recently, though there was an evening when I was out there and I heard more crickets, but boy was that silence noticeable when that one tiny sound occurred to point it out to me!

Today was about 20ºF warmer than yesterday (when it rained all day, so I couldn't go out with my camera, which is why there was no blog yesterday), and between the sunshine (starting in mid-afternoon, we can't possibly have a WHOLE DAY that is sunny) and the temperatures in the 70s the backyard was very buggy. There were quite a few swallowtail butterflies flitting overhead (they spend a lot of time among the tops of the trees) and many, many other insects, but I only photographed a few, because they were mostly uncooperative. They were pretty active because of the warm weather.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is a wedge shaped beetle, but it could be a tumbling flower beetle. They look very similar.

Other Bugs:

 Bee fly

 Katydid nymph. I was happy to see bugs on these flowers, because it gave me excuses to take more pictures of my current favorite flower.

 Bee! Bees have been scarce lately, possibly due to the cold and rain (though they weren't exactly abundant today), so I was happy to see one.

 Caterpillar

 

 Moth. A couple of years ago these were all over the crab apple trees, but last year I didn't see any.

Today I saw two.

 I have been trying to get a good picture of these tiny flies signaling each other with their wings...

 ... but no luck so far. They move pretty fast.

 Caterpillar. If you look closely I believe you can see the progress of its latest meal through its digestive system.

 Some kind of Hemiptera. I have only ever seen these on the seed heads of tall grasses.

 Looper caterpillar

 Some kind of beetle larva. I see these every year, and have never figured out what they are when they grow up.

 Cranefly

 Here's the above picture zoomed in to show the faceted eyes.

 Sawfly larva

 Beetle

 Some kind of Hemiptera. I know the name of this one, but I can't remember it right now... lined something something bug...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I love jumping spiders, and I especially admire this species, the Bold Jumping Spider, because I think its green chelicerae are beautiful, but this particular one has a gypsy moth caterpillar in its grip, which makes it more than usually wonderful.

 In case you're wondering about the background of this picture, that's my pant leg.

 I think this is a six-spotted orb weaver, but from this angle I can't see the spots.

 I almost never see crab spiders with all 8 of their legs. This one only appears to have 6.

 Another Bold Jumping Spider, but it really wasn't very bold.

Same spider, different view

 Another jumping spider