Unscheduled

I am not a person who lives by a schedule or routine, but I do have habits, and the time of day I generally do my bug walk is part of a habitual way of planning my day. But mostly I look for bugs when it fits in around other things I have to do (and the weather, sometimes). So often it is a while before I get a chance to go look for bugs, but I might have been out in the backyard for some other reason before I get to it, and if I see bugs when I am out there doing something else then I have a pretty good idea of whether or not bugs will be easy to find when I am actually looking for them. Like if I see a few bugs, notice bug activity when I go outside to get the mail, I know bugs are around and active, so I am pretty sure I will be able to find them on my bug walk. So today, when I went out for a while in the afternoon and saw bugs when I left and when I got back, I knew that I would have a successful bug walk today. And... I did. That was a lot of build up for something of an anticlimax, I suppose. But after a cold, rainy day yesterday that was too wet for my camera, I did wonder a little bit if the bugs would be out, or if they would still be in hiding–it was only in the 50s (ºF) yesterday, and though today was warmer, it wasn't a huge leap into warmth. The bugs around now are not the ones that are out when 55ºF is the usual daily temperature. I didn't know how they would like it. Maybe they didn't like it very much, because I didn't find a lot of bugs.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Stiretrus anchorago. A species of stink bug. There's an interesting thing about bugs from the order Hemiptera (aka true bugs), which is that some of them are predatory, and some of them feed on plants. There are other orders that are only one or the other: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) feed on plants. Well, the caterpillars feed on plants, the adults either feed on plants or don't feed at all. Dragonflies eat insects. Mantises eat insects (and sometimes other animals). There are some species that eat other insects during their larval stage, but feed on plants when they reach the imago (adult) stage, like hoverflies. You know if you see a dragonfly that it eats insects. But if you see a species of Hemiptera, just from the fact that it is a Hemiptera you can't tell what it eats. It might use that proboscis to suck fluids out of a plant. Or it might stab it into other insects and suck fluids out of its prey. I never know until I actually see a bug feeding (unless I have looked it up and its name is Assassin Bug). In this case, I had didn't know what this bug ate... until today.

 It is insectivorious. Feeding on a beetle larva.

Other Bugs:

 Bee

 Looper caterpillar with parasite. I think what has happened here is that an egg was laid inside the caterpillar. A larva hatched and lived inside the caterpillar and now it has come out and is pupating on the outside of the caterpillar. But I could be wrong, I am just figuring out from things I have read.

 Moth

 Some kind of Hemiptera. I don't know what it eats: it could be a plant eater because it's on a plant, but maybe it's just waiting there for prey.

 White marked tussock moth caterpillar that is still in an early instar and isn't quite looking like a white marked tussock moth caterpillar yet.

 I think this is a sawfly, but it might be another kind of wasp.

Hoverfly imago on deptfor pink flower

 Hoverfly larvae being investigated by an ant among the aphids the larvae feed on.

 Leaf-footed bug. Plant-feeding Hemiptera, I think. I mean, I know it's a Hemiptera. I think it feeds on plants.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I watched this spider remove that bit of fluff from its web.

I found this orchard spider dangling from my arm.