Variations

After being away from my backyard for over a week I thought I was not going to be able to do a bug walk today because it rained almost all day. I still went for a walk around the backyard, but without my camera, and later went out again when the rain stopped. The sun actually came out for a short time, but I didn't manage to get outside for that.

I thought that I had found a new-to-me bug to be Backyard Bug of the Day, but I think it may just be a variant on one I have seen before. I am still making it Backyard Bug of the Day today because it is a bug I have always liked, I haven't seen one yet this year, and after all, it is a variant of what I usually see.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this may be a variant on the red milkweed beetle. I have never seen one with that black heart marking before.

 One a nearby milkweed plant I found this, which is what I usually see.

 I may have inadvertently saved the Backyard Bug of the Day from being attacked by this assassin bug. I didn't see the assassin bug at first, but just as I noticed it creeping up on the BBotD, the beetle was alarmed by my camera and scooted away.

 There were some really great bugs in the backyard today. Mostly I saw moths and hover flies, but with other neat bugs here and there.

 Here's a pair of hover flies.

 

 Bumble bee on sumac

 A couple of plume moths and a hover fly on sumac leaves

 Katydid nymph

Katydid

 Thrips

 I was looking at a mushroom and heard a noise from nearby; I looked and found this moth frantically beating its wings.

 It too a rest–lying on its back.

 Scorpion fly. Not venomous, just named that because of how it looks.

 I think this is a brown lacewing larva.

 And what to brown lacewing larvae do, other than turn into brown lacewing adults?

 Eat aphids

 When I took this picture I didn't realize that there were two hoppers here.

 Egg sac?

These look like different species of lady beetle.