Just Looking

I don't have much time for this right now, and there's not much to say about the bugs in the backyard today, so I am just going to go right on to pictures...

Actually first I want to mention two things I saw in the backyard today that I have not seen in a while. The first was a fawn, which I did not get a picture of because it scampered away too quickly. I have not seen a fawn in my backyard in 4 years. We used to see them every summer. The other thing is not nearly as rare, but is something I have not seen much this summer.

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 

I think this is only the third frog I have seen this year, in spite of how wet it has been.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Wasp. Female; note the ovipositor.

 The caterpillars that have been moving their tent up the vine one leaf at a time. I still don't know what they are, I won't be able to even try to identify them until they get bigger.

 I think this is a different species of grasshopper from the ones I have been seeing lately, unless they change colors in different instars. This one is not an adult yet, the wings are not fully developed.

 Swamp milkweed beetle

 I found a couple of weird things going on with caterpillars:

 This is the woolly bear I posted a picture of yesterday.

 

 I think this is a white hickory tussock moth caterpillar that has lost all of its hair. I didn't want to touch it to ascertain if it is still alive.

Stink bug

Assassin bug. But you could probably tell what this was.

I think this is one of the species of katydid that I posted yesterday. This one is female, and the one from yesterday was male.

Aphids on milkweed

Today I noticed that the two monarch eggs have turned dark, which means the caterpillar is about to hatch; the dark spot is the caterpillar's black head.

... and in the evening they did hatch.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Flower crab spider on the seed head of grass

Jumping spider with moth prey