Elbow Room

There weren't as many bugs around today as there have been lately, except for one: mosquitoes. For some reason I cannot figure out, when I am doing bug walks and there are mosquitoes around they nearly always bite me on the outside of my left elbow. It's an awkward and inconvenient place for them to bite, because I hold my camera with my right hand (as cameras are designed for right handed people), and you can't smack the outside of your left elbow with your left hand. Or anything else, really, if your right hand is busy. So in order to smack the mosquitoes I have to first switch hands with the camera, which gives the mosquito precious time to inject me with itchiness, and then possibly get away without being smacked (also, in that case, without any of my blood, but they usually come back for another try at that). Right now I have several itchy mosquito bites on my left elbow (and when I get a mosquito bite it itches for DAYS), because there have been a lot of daytime-biting mosquitoes, no doubt due to the wet weather of the last couple of months.

So, there were plenty of mosquitoes, but not quite as many other bugs.

The autumn joy sedum, for example, hosted only one:

 One lonely bumblebee

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

Weevil. This is a pretty big weevil, with a prodigious proboscis. From the subfamily Curculioninae, but I can't find the particular species in the books.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Some kind of sawfly larva. I am not sure that I have ever seen this species before.

These sawfly larvae were elsewhere on the same plant, but they were much smaller, and don't look like the same species.

Occasionally I see ladybeetles on goldenrod, and I know that they are not feeding on the plant, because that is not what they eat.

 They eat aphids. It's hard to see aphids on goldenrod, though. However...

 ... looking on the picture on the computer I figured out where they are.

This year has been a big year for crickets, particularly in the rock garden:

 I see them scurrying around on, but mostly under, the plants, which are a low ground cover (creeping myrtle). This one...

 ... and these two were basically at my feet as I stood in one spot. There were others I glimpsed, too. I have never seen so many crickets in the rock garden before.

 Leaf hopper

I took over 30 pictures of this looper caterpillar, and these two are the only mildly acceptable ones:

 A species of Cedusa leaf hopper

 Green stinkbug

 Pearl crescent butterfly

 This has also been a big year for banded tussock moth caterpillars in my backyard.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Jumping spider

Daddy-long-legs

Nursery web spiders: