Mowing

I mowed the lawn today, and while it wasn't exactly waist high, the grass was long, thick, and shaggy. I annoyed a lot of arthropods by mowing the lawn. In the rainy month since it had last been mowed it had apparently grown into an attractive habitat. I dislodged a LOT of moths, and at the risk of anthropomorphizing, I think they flew away in a state of flustered indignation. I also sent a lot of spiders scurrying, most of them carrying egg sacs. And I found quite a few woolly bear caterpillars, who responded by simply curling up in to fuzzy, little spheres. I mowed carefully around them. I was sorry to disturb them all, but most of my yard is dedicated to the needs of the wildlife around me, including the tiny arthropod wildlife. I reserve a bit of lawn and path space for my own convenience, and in order to keep it as free as possible from ticks, it has to be mowed. Confession: knowing all the things that are in the grass is why I never sit directly on the grass if I can help it. I love insects, but I don't want them crawling up my shorts. However, I apologize to all the insects and spiders I annoyed today. I hope they found somewhere else to do whatever it was they were doing in my lawn.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Stink bug nymph

Oh, I forgot to mention another insect I annoyed when I mowed the lawn:

 This beetle larva. I am sure it found me annoying when I mowed down the plant it was eating.

 Beetle on goldenrod

 Leaf hopper

 Camouflage looper capterpillar

Immature grasshopper–no wings yet

Dragonfly

I think this is a species of tachinid fly

This plant was covered with little looper caterpillars again today, but I don't think they were the same one that were there yesterday, because these were smaller. I think you can see four here, but there were at least six on the plant.

I think this is a tree louse.

I finally went downstairs to get my caterpillar book and looked this up. It might be a Radcliffe's dagger moth. I am not completely convinced, because the colors are not exactly like the picture, but it was by far the closest match. This is not the same one from yesterday, but one on the same kind of tree, just the opposite side of the backyard. You may remember from yesterday the question of whether there were lace bugs nymphs on the same leaf with the caterpillar...

These were not on the same leaf, but they were on the tree. In fact, this tree is where I most often find lace bugs.

There is a particular tree in the backyard where I have seen viceroy caterpillars before, so I have a tendency to check the tree for them when I go by. I haven't been finding any, but today I looked higher and there I found one:

After consulting my book I am fairly certain that this is a viceroy, and not a red spotted purple, which closely resembles the viceroy.

I looked this one up, too. It might be a hog sphinx. It is definitely a sphinx.

After consulting my book again I think these are the same species of caterpillar, white marked tussock moth, with just slightly different coloring. The other similar species is very different in color:

 

 I don't know what these tiny caterpillars are going to be, but they were all in or on a web of silk encompassing a couple of leaves.

 One of the woolly bear caterpillars on the lawn

 Ragged ambush bug nymph

And here are two adult ragged ambush bugs, the female feeding on a thick-headed fly, the male on the female's back.

 Leaf hopper

 Egg.

After a couple of days of these milkweed tussock moth caterpillars being ubiquitous, I only found three today.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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One of the spiders I annoyed while mowing the lawn. You can just barely see the egg case she is carrying underneath her body.