Contradictions

Today my backyard chose to make me look foolish by contradicting two statements I made in my blog yesterday. Well, not exactly contradicting them. I never said that I never find new bugs anymore. I said I hardly ever find them.

So, I found one today. And you now know from what I said yesterday that it will be Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I am not positive that this is a new bug, because there are too many now for me to remember them all, and I have never kept the kind of records that would let me look it up. When I started, I never realized that I would still be doing this years later. But this looks new to me, so that's enough for me. I don't know what it is, other than a tiny Hemiptera. It's one of those little things that you have to look closer at once you've spotted it, just to see if it even is a bug. Well, it is.

I also said yesterday that it is hard to get a good picture of a six-spotted tiger beetle:

Well, yesterday's was better anyway, though this one is in my backyard. And it wouldn't have been chosen for BBotD because I found that new bug. So... no regrets.

Once again I got pictures of half of the species of butterflies I saw today, which amounts to one butterfly:

 Spring azure, female. It's rare that I get a shot at the dorsal side of the wings, so this is pretty nice, even though it's not a great shot. I couldn't get closer, in part because butterflies are shy, and in part because the thorns on the plant stopped me.

 Crane fly. Female.

 Ovipositor close-up

There were bees and wasps all over today, mostly small bees skimming above the leaf litter in the woods. I don't know what kind they were, or what they were looking for there. There were many in the rock garden, too, attracted by the creeping myrtle flowers:

 and the dandelions are a draw, of course.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Jumping spider