A Bit of Variety

I'm feeling a bit under the weather, so I am going to make this short so I can go to bed.

This is Memorial Day weekend in the US, which is the unofficial start of summer, the start of social summer, you might say (even though that has nothing to do with what the holiday is about, which is honoring fallen soldiers). The weather obliged and acted like it was July, hot (in the 90s) and humid. It has been my observation in the past that bugs don't really like this kind of weather. This is something I have in common with bugs. What's great, though, is that even though I didn't find a lot of bugs, there were still some I found today that are not the same old-same old that I find all the time. A bit of variety in insects is always nice.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Mayfly. Perfect for May.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

This is a nymph of some kind of hopper; I don't know what kind, but as a nymph at least this is a new bug for me and my backyard.

 I know this is a terrible picture, but I wanted to show what it looks like from the side. When I first spotted it, the back end of it was curled upward.

My front porch neighbors are growing:

 Peeking out of the nest

 This is what happens when I open the front door. The parents suddenly appear and fly at the porch. They get closer than this, it's just hard to time the pictures. They fly in and hover for a moment, then fly back to the tree. You can see the other parent sitting int he tree.

 It's getting VERY crowded in the nest. I expect these to fledge very soon. Like, tomorrow, maybe.

Other Bugs:

There is a story about this caterpillar, and why it is photographed here on a deconstructed envelope that came in the mail today, but I am too tired to explain it...

 Eastern tent caterpillars–how they can stand being piled together like that on a hot day I do not understand. This reminds me, I meant to go out after dark with a flashlight to see if they feed at night–they never seem to be doing anything during the day but hanging around on their tent.

 This is some kind of hopper. It might be a frog hopper, which I think is an odd name, but nobody asks me when they name these things.

 ENORMOUS ant tending to aphids

 Flower longhorn beetle

 I think this is a sawfly larva

 Craneflies propagating the species. The female is the one above, with the wider body and pointy ovipositor on the end.

 Another adult assassin bug!

 I found a gypsy moth caterpillar that had just molted into a new instar. You can see that it is just developing its blue and red spots, which answers a question for me. After I took this picture I squished it. I hate doing that. But it has to be done. I only saw three of these today, which is a good thing. It might not mean anything, it is possible they are all just really high up in the trees. I am just hoping it means there are not many around, that maybe they are dying from the fungus after all the rain we've had.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Six-spotted orb weaver