Thursday, August 3, 2017

Odonata Rule

I can think of several things to say here, and all of them are very complainy, so all I am going to say is that I wish the Lepidoptera would take a cue from the Odonata.

Backyard Bug of the Day:
 Another dragonfly. After seeing (and photographing) so many dragonflies last week, I haven't seen them in the last couple of days, but I found this most obliging one today. As usual, I can't identify the species, but like the others I think this is in the skimmer family.

And here's another lovely from the order Odonata (suborder Zygoptera, that name being reason enough to like them):
 Damselfly. There is a particular area of the yard (front yard, actually) where I have been seeing damselflies a lot this summer. I don't always get a picture, and actually most days I don't even get a good look at them, because they are small and fast, and the place where I see them is in the woods, so it's kind of dark, so I don't know if they are all the same species or not. They could be all the same damselfly that I keep seeing, for all I know. Again I can't find the species in my book, but they appear to belong to the family of Spreadwing Damsels, being damselflies whose wings are held as above, as opposed to the way other damselflies hold their wings at rest, closed behind them. I almost never see those in my backyard. Actually, I am not sure if I have ever seen one of those in my backyard...

And though I saw quite a few butterflies today, this is the only one I got a picture of:
 Cabbage white. I wonder if that body posture is part of an attempt to attract a mate. Just before I took this picture there was another cabbage white on that same flower, and after I took this picture, the two danced away together.

More cooperative members of the Lepidoptera:
 Both of these caterpillars are head down.

So amusing.

I found a couple more in the backyard:
 This one is close to full grown...

 And this one is in early instars. Maybe close to the middle of its cycle. All these caterpillars of different ages make me think that monarchs have made multiple visits to my backyard in the past few weeks. Funny that I only got a glimpse, possibly, of one.

Other Bugs:
 Hemiptera nymph

 I think these are lady beetle eggs.

 The hornets have now dug a hole in the middle of the hole.

White hickory tussock moth caterpillar

Visitor to our movie screen tonight–green lacewing.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Here's a curious scene: a crab spider with its fangs in an ant, and a couple of gnats are swarming around it.









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