Variety

I've run out of things to say. Nature is beautiful. Go outside and have a look.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is some kind of Ichneumon wasp (I almost typed moth instead of wasp. That would have been confusing, eh?). I can't find this particular one in any of my books, but one of the books says that there are over 5,000 species in North America, so no book is going to have them all. That is not a horrific stinger, by the way, it's an ovipositor, which means this is a female.

One butterfly today:

 Male. He wasn't ready to fly when we brought him out, but later I did witness his first flight. It's always beautiful and slightly melancholy to see them fly away.

Other Bugs:

 Ants like the autumn joy sedum.

 Every year I find a katydid of this species on the autumn joy sedum and take almost this exact photograph.

 Weevil

I found out what that plant is that is flowering: Japanese knotweed. It is invasive, which I already knew, and almost impossible to get rid of, which I already knew because we have been trying to kill it for over a decade without success.

 One good thing, though: one of the insects that has been all over it has been honeybees. Before this plant bloomed I think I had only seen two honeybees all summer.

 Lots of sweat bees are attracted to it, too.

 Assassin bug nymph

 Caterpillar

 White hickory tussock moth caterpillars. One has just shed its skin, seen at the top of the picture.

 Praying mantis

 Net-winged beetle

 Remember the sawfly larvae I posted yesterday? They have almost finished eating that leaf.

 Stinkbug

 Crane fly

 Some kind of hopper nymph

 This double-toothed prominent caterpillar has eaten that leaf down to just the center rib, to which it is clinging.

 I swear, if you sat and watched you could see mushrooms grow. This is about twice the size it was yesterday.

 Woolly bear caterpillar

 I think this is some kind of tachinid fly.

 I noticed something in this out-of-focus picture of the BBotD...

 Eggs of some kind. I'll have to look for them tomorrow. The look a little like green lacewing eggs, but not quite.

 Still lots of bugs attracted to the tree growing out of the back porch. I think the leaves must be secreting something.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Looking at this web I wasn't completely sure there was a spider in there... (I think it's a bowl and doily web).

Looking closer, though, there is a tiny spider in the middle.

 Jumping spider

Flower crab spider

 During the day I spotted a big web, and found the leaf bower containing this spider.

 I went out after dark to look, and there she was in the middle of her web. I think this is a marbled orb weaver.