Inside Bugs

I took more pictures of bugs in my house today than I took outside yesterday on my bug walk. Part of that is because there was so much going on in the caterpillar/butterfly enclosure. But then I found a tiny interloper on the wall, and without even going outside had the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I don't know what this is. The face looks like a moth, but nothing else about it looks moth-like–although there are moths with clear wings, like yesterday's Backyard Bug of the Day. This is a really tiny bug, and interestingly, all of the other times I have seen one it has been on the front porch, attracted to the light. I have never seen one in a natural environment. It's quite an interesting little thing, though.

The rest of the bugs I saw in the house today were monarchs in various stages of development:

 This female eclosed at some time during the morning.

In yesterday's blog I said that a butterfly would eclose today, and then late last night I realized that there would be two because another chrysalis darkened rather suddenly (or so it appeared to me). This is how it looked in the morning, fully clear, the butterfly visible inside, but not ready to come out yet:

 The expansion joints had not opened out yet.

When I went into the dining room in the morning there was a caterpillar in the J shape, waiting to become a chrysalis. I left the room for a few minutes to check a message, and came back to find this:

The striped part in the upper half of this, where it looks ridged, is going to contract and become the expansion pleats (which you'll see later in the blog).

And in the morning there were two caterpillars that looked like they were nearing their full size.

That was all in the morning. In the afternoon:

 I wanted to release both butterflies at the same time, but the second one wasn't coming out, so I took the first one out, and she was ready to fly!

This is the only picture I took before she took off.

 She spent the next hour or so working her wings and occasionally flitting from one tree to another...

Flying...

Back in the dining room, it wasn't until pretty late in the afternoon that the second chrysalis showed signs of readiness:

From what I have read, and so far experienced, monarch butterflies usually eclose in the morning, but this happened at around 3:30–the expansion joints have finally popped, which is a sign the butterfly will emerge soon. The reason this is kind of blurry is because the chrysalis is hanging in a spot where I can only get a picture of it through the mesh of the enclosure.

Close-up on the joints.

I had to leave for an appointment right around 4:00 and the butterfly had not emerged yet, but when I got home at around 4:30 there he was. I got a little help releasing him, but he was not ready to fly yet. However, I wanted to get him outside before it got dark, and didn't want to wait until tomorrow morning. So we put him on a tree...

I went out a couple of hours later just as it was getting dark, and he was ready to be flapping his wings a bit, but I don't think he will fly anywhere until morning. I did check a few hours later and he was still waiting on the plant.

That spot on the hind wing is how you know he is male.

In other dining room news, another butterfly will eclose tomorrow morning, and one of the two remaining caterpillars has gone J shaped:

It chose a bad spot, between the layers of the rack. It is actually resting on the slat underneath. I am hoping that it will have room when it is a chrysalis.

Other Bugs:

Assassin bug

Sometimes when I spot an insect that blends in really well I am amazed at myself for seeing it... and I wonder how many other insects I am walking right past without noticing them:

Tiny moth

Winged ant?

Fly

Leaf hopper

All over my backyard are little discarded bits where fuzzy caterpillars have molted and left behind their former skin like teenagers who drop their bath towels on the floor after a shower.

I found a tree that had several areas that were covered with patches of silk threads:

Up close I could see what looked like tiny frass stuck on the threads, and a bunch of tiny cocoons. I have been seeing these little cocoons on trees around the yard, and I am curious about what is in them, and feeling kind of chagrined that there were obviously a lot of tiny insects, or larvae, anyway, that I just didn't notice.

 We went out in the evening and came home to see this on the back porch. This is the first American dagger moth I have seen in about 2 years. Last year I don't think I saw a single one. It's a pretty big moth; not Luna-moth big, but still.

 Also on the porch...

Backyard Bird of the Day:

This hummingbird hovered right in front of me for a few seconds, but by the time I got the camera up it had retreated to land a bit farther away. The macro lens is not the perfect tool for this situation.

Magnified. It's sticking its tongue out.

This hasn't been a very spidery week, but today made up for it. Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Flower crab spider on purple cone flower

Today I noticed that the funnel web spider had company in its hiding hole:

At first I thought it was prey, but then I realized it was... company. I don't even know which one of these is the spider that lives there, but I assume the female is the one who owns this web and lair, and the male is the one who wanders around looking for a mate. That is the male on top, though, with his big pedipalps, and it looks like he is passing his spermatophore to her–the milky blob he is holding with his left pedipalp. She is upside-down.

Orchard spider

I think these might be nursery web spiders:

Arrow shaped micrathena