So Summery

Looking at my pictures from today, all I can think is that bugs are amazing. Also, I took almost 300 pictures today. That is the most pictures I have taken in a single day in the backyard in weeks–about 2 or 3 times as many as I have been getting most days. It's really feeling like summer in the backyard now.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1

 Wasp (sawfly?) One of the many insects attracted to the sumac flowers today.

The sumac flowers were very popular again today:

 Bees/wasps (including a cuckoo wasp, the pretty blue one on the left) and flies

 A moth, even.

 Not sure what the lady beetle is doing there, since they eat aphids. But maybe there are aphids and I just don't see them.

 A couple of beetles, too.

 Plume moth

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2

 

 Beetle

 

 Grasshopper nymph

 Not an insect. Robin's egg

 Long-legged fly

 Thick headed fly

 Assassin bug nymph

 Sweat bee

 Finally, a couple of red-headed ash borers willing to sit still for a few seconds to have their picture taken!

 Assassin bug nymph

 Beetle larva. Could be a lady beetle, but I am not sure, it doesn't look exactly like the ones I have seen before, but it could be a different species. It's similar, anyway.

 Assassin bug nymph and leaf hopper. The leaf hopper is in the act of excreting some honeydew. I did not stick around long enough to see if the leaf hopper ended up as assassin bug prey.

 Beetle. Could be a Dogwood Twig Borer.

Sweat bee on black-eyed Susan

And also on the black-eyed Susans... Arachnid Appreciation:
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Moth and a flower crab spider. Several of the flowers in this clump had spiders in similar locations.