The Difference Between Dragons and Damsels

Well, the sunshine was nice while it lasted. Part of one afternoon, and one morning. Actually, the weather is about to change for the hotter, apparently, so the bugs and I will be sweating it out in the backyard over the weekend and into next week. It will be interesting to see what affect that has on the finding of bugs. At least, it's interesting to me. Not that I have ever been able to discern a pattern to that.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Damselfly. I actually saw three of these today, which is kind of unusual. Or I possibly saw one of them twice, because I saw two of them in the same general area, about an hour apart, but one of them was in a totally different part of the yard, so I am pretty sure that one was a different individual.

 This is the third, and perhaps the first one I saw. It was fairly cooperative, though it kept moving to new spots that were harder and harder for me to get to.

 I tried to look up what species this is, but I wasn't able to figure it out from the pictures or descriptions in my bug books. So, what's the difference between a dragonfly and a damselfly, you ask? Well, the damselfly has a thin body, and the dragonfly's is thicker. The dragonfly's eyes make up almost its whole head, while the damselfly's are on the sides. And the dragonfly's wings stick out to the sides, while the damselfly folds them back over its back. I mention all of this because I used to think that damselflies were dragonflies, and I thought maybe other people had the same misconception. They are from the same order, though, Odonata.

It would be so great if I actually got pictures of a dragonfly AND a damselfly on the same day. Sigh. Today is not that day.

 This sort of looks like a combination of Princess Leia and Johnny Five.

Other Bugs:

 Six-spotted tiger beetle

 I know, I know, I keep posting pictures of this katydid nymph, but it's so cute, and it keeps posing in pretty places!

 Some kind of tiny Hemiptera nymph

 I found a plastic container in the yard that was full of water from all the rain, and decided to dump it out to avoid providing a nursery for mosquito larvae, and I found this insect floating in the water. I assumed it was dead, but then I saw its antennae moving.

 Naturally I rescued it.

 I watched it for a while, and it was able to move, and pulled its wings in somewhat. I left it on the sidewalk in the (brief) sunshine, and when I went inside over an hour later it was still sitting there, and still alive.

 While I was sitting on the ground watching the insect above, this bee landed on my leg.

 And this caterpillar dropped from who knows where and crawled away.

Ladybeetle

 Once again I found a skipper sitting motionless on a plant. It let me get close for pictures, and when I came back later it was still sitting there.

 Flower longhorn beetle

 Ichneumon wasp, I think. Female; that's its long ovipositor, not a fearsome stinger.

 Some kind of Hemiptera nymph

 Bug. One of those bugs I see on the seed heads of tall grass.

 GMC ON MY HAT. ON THE INSIDE OF THE BRIM, RIGHT NEXT TO MY FACE. THIS DEFEATS THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF WEARING THE HAT!

Well, not the whole purpose. I also wear it to keep frass out of my hair. I forgot to put it on when I went out today, but then I heard the rain of frass from the trees and went right back inside to get my hat.

 Four squash bugs. There have been four or five of them on this tree every day this week, I think.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I didn't get great pictures of this, but here we have a Bold Jumping Spider preying on a Daddy-long-legs (aka Harvestman). The DLL was still alive and wriggling when I first saw them. I could not tell how it was when I saw them again over an hour later.

 Tiny, baby jumping spider

 Mite