Always Learning, Thanks to Books

I don't always get to choose what time I go out and do my bug walk, but given a choice, I would never choose dusk. It's probably obvious why; it's too dark. But there is sort of an artificial dusk that happens when the sun dips below the level of the trees, it's darker than just afternoon shade. It's hard to take pictures in that kind of light (obviously the light on the camera is absolutely necessary), but it's also hard to find bugs. And lately I have become acutely aware of how much earlier in the day darkness begins to fall. Because... it's fall. The shortening of the days is palpable. Today circumstances meant that I would be doing my bug walk during this tree-induced dusk, and I kind of didn't mind, because today was terribly hot and humid, so I figured that at least doing my bug walk in the early evening meant it would be cooler. But it wasn't, so I had the worst of both worlds: darkness, with the temperature still in the 80s and high humidity. Blech.

Today's Backyard Bug of the Day provides an example of what I was talking about the other day when I mentioned how frequently I am wrong.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I always thought that these Kywere a pale variation of the candy striped leaf hopper (Graphocephala coccinea), but my most recently acquired (which I actually acquired last Christmas) insect field guide, Insects of New England and New York, has a lot more species of leaf hoppers than my others do, and perusing it last night I realized that this is, in fact, a different species, Kyboasca splendida. So, even though I have seen these a million times before, and posted pictures of them for years, they have technically never been Backyard Bug of the Day. Until now.

 I should have realized that these were a different species; they are smaller than the candy striped leaf hoppers. And since this is clearly an adult, it's not like it's going to grow bigger.

 These were all over the place tonight.

I still don't know what species of nymph this is, but it is feasible that it is the Backyard Bug of the Day's nymph form, since there are a lot of them hanging around the same areas. But I'm not going to make any assumptions.

Also all over the place, not just tonight, but the last couple of weeks:

 Crane flies. Multiple species. I am finding them a lot less cooperative than they are in the springtime. They are easily frightened away, so I don't get pictures of them much. This is one of the smaller species.

I took this just before it was frightened away. One of the larger species.

How to find a tree cricket:

 Bumblebee

 Plant hopper. One thing about taking pictures at dusk: you get dramatic lighting. Of course, it's not as dark as it appears in the pictures; it wasn't pitch black out. But that's how the camera handles these situations. With the bright light on the subject, the background is very dark by contrast. I am sure there are technical terms involved here, but I don't know them, I just take the pictures.

 Also ubiquitous: white hickory tussock moth caterpillars. I saw a lot of them today, and they were more than usually active, walking around, rather than just sitting on leaves or eating. Of course, some of them were doing those things, too.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Dramatic lighting!

Jumping spider

Jumping spider