I saw quite a few bugs flying by my windows today, just at moments when I happened to glance out, and so I was expecting to find a lot of bugs when I went outside for my bug walk, but that was not the case. What I did find was a lot of spiders, at least 15 different species, including possibly 2 that I have never seen before. Now, if you are arachnophobic, don't worry, I am still going to put those at the end of the blog. But this is just a heads up that there's not much else to see.
Except fungus. Due to our very wet weather lately there are mushrooms and other fungus of many species around the backyard. It's hard for me to take pictures of them right now because of problems with my knee that make it hard to get pictures at those angles, but here are a few:
Some newly fledged mourning doves were hanging out in the vegetable garden (we only planted half of the garden this year, and they are in the overgrown half). I scared them and one of their parents away once (by accident), but the young ones came back. I know they could fly, but when I came back to the garden and saw them there without a parent, they didn't fly away, they just tried to escape through the chicken wire fence (which they could not do, so I left in order to not distress them). The parent landed on the other side of the fence just as I was walking away. I have read that the parent mourning dove will pretend to be injured to draw predators away from their fledglings (baby birds that have recently left the nest), which I have seen briefly before, but I guess in this case it wasn't necessary because I left before the parent arrived.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
Wasp on autumn joy sedum. This may even have been BBotD already this year, I don't know. But I didn't get anything else better so... here it is. I think this is a species of potter's wasp.
I'll try to go easy on caterpillar pictures today, because of Monday's overload, but I had to get pictures of a couple of them:
I can't remember the name of this one now... It still rests in that position that looks anything but restful. It is on a different leaf of the oak tree today, having eaten the leaf it was on the other day.
I can see how its coloring would be good camouflage when it's along the edge of a leaf; the green matches the leaf, and the brown and yellow look like a curled, browning leaf edge.
I took this one just because they look so cute with the water droplets stuck to them. Banded tussock moth caterpillar.
This woolly bear didn't just have water droplets, part of its fuzz looks downright waterlogged.
Once again I got the Orthoptera trifecta of cricket, katydid, and grasshopper:
I don't know what's going on here with this cricket.
Katydid
Bottle fly on autumn joy sedum
Some kind of hopper that has recently molted; the lower object is its recently shed exoskeleton
Closer look
Ironically, I often have trouble getting good pictures of this species of ladybeetle because they don't like to sit still, and when I saw that this one was being fed upon by an assassin bug I thought this was my big chance, but the assassin bug kept rolling it over, trying to find a good place to insert its proboscis, and so even though it was dead it could not stay still.
Stinkbug feeding on sawfly larva
Bee
Sweat bee
Colorado potato beetle
And now of all of those fascinating, fabulous spiders. Arachnid Appreciation:
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Not all of these pictures are up to my posting standards, but I am posting them just to show the many different spiders I saw.
Species #1:
The rain gauge has always been a popular hideout for insects, and even more so for spiders–which makes sense, because obviously there are a lot of prey insects available. Anyway, when I emptied the rain gauge of the almost 5 inches of rain from yesterday I found this unfortunate nursery web spider hiding behind it. It is missing half of its legs. I can imagine that a certain number of its legs are redundancies, but it seems like it would be difficult to get around with both rear legs missing on one side. I didn't see it move at all, though, so I don't know how well it does.
A nursery web spider in better shape.
Species #2:
First, I want to mention that the reason this picture is kind of hazy is because it was cool in the house this morning, but warm and humid outside, so as soon as I walked outside with my cool-from-the-house camera, the lens fogged up. I thought I had managed to clear it up when I saw this jumping spider, but not quite.
Here's the non-foggy version.
In fact, several of the species I saw were jumping spiders. Species #3:
Species #4:
These next two were on the same leaf–Species #5:
They don't look the same, but I wonder if it's possible that they are male and female of the same species. I know almost nothing about jumping spider identification, but often with spiders the male and female of the species differ greatly not just in size but in other aspects of their appearance. Of course, it really could just be that there were two random jumping spiders on the same leaf. I didn't see them interact at all, they were just mostly trying to avoid my camera.
Species #6?
Of course, sometimes the jumping spiders trying to avoid the camera lead to me being able to get different views of the same spider. Dorsal...
... Front view.
This might be a cross orb weaver, or something related–Species #7:
It thinks I can't see it if it pulls its legs in close. It zoomed between two milkweed plants like it was ziplining, curled up on this leaf to "hide" from me, and when I stepped away ziplined up (which I think is impossible in normal ziplining, but spiders are special that way) to the leaf of a tree. I wonder if tomorrow I will find a web there.
I think this is the same species, but on its web.
Hiding out (I think this is another nursery web spider, so not another species).
Species #8:
Crab spider
Species #9:
I wish I had been able to get closer to this one, but it was camera shy. This is one I have never seen before...
And mere feet away... Species #10:
...Another one I have never seen before. This was tiny, and a little bit odd. It is one of those spiders that thinks you can't see it if it stretches its legs out, and I probably wouldn't have ever noticed it, or known it was a spider if I did, if it hadn't been moving.
I tried to get a better, more close-up picture, with indifferent results. I could not get a shot of the other side.
Species #11:
Flower crab spider with fly prey
Species #12:
Orchard spider
Species #13:
The funnel web spider that has been living in a crack in a tree trunk in front of the house was hiding up in her lair today; her web was badly damaged by the storm yesterday.
Species #14:
There is a little community of common house spiders near the cellar door.
They all have egg sacs now.
Species #15:
Arrow shaped micrathena
I did see other jumping spiders that may have been other species, I just didn't get pictures of them.
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