Silent Summer Night

I went out on the back porch tonight to appreciate the moonlight and the fireflies, and was struck by how quiet it was. I always used to think that crickets just sang all summer, because I never paid that much attention to the natural world, but in recent years I learned that different species of crickets sing at different points in the season, and there isn't complete overlap. So there are times when there aren't any crickets singing. It still seems weird, though, like it's not really summer. After all, a couple of years ago I heard crickets in December, so it's weird not to hear them in July. However, today was actually the first time this summer I saw a cricket.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Tree cricket. Juvenile, as you can tell from the underdeveloped wings. Adults are the ones that sing, I think, because they are looking for mates, so this one isn't ready to join the chorus. Not the season for these crickets, yet.

Other Bugs:

 Bearing in mind that people who really hate bugs are blocked from seeing my bug posts on my facebook page, there are two bugs that have had really hostile reactions from friends, the scarlet lily beetle (I didn't know it was invasive when I posted it once, and there was an outcry among my friends whose lilies had been devoured by it), and the earwig. People do not like earwigs (and given that one friend actually did get one in her ear, I don't blame her for being squeamish about them). I used to think they were creepy, too, but really looking at them I think they are quite handsome bugs. This one is a female, as evidenced by the smaller pincers on its back end.

A great way to find caterpillars: look for leaf damage, like this eaten-up milkweed leaf:

 Here's what I found on the other side of the leaf. I don't know what these are, but they could be fall webworms. It's very hard to tell in early instars, though, what kind of caterpillars you've got.

 I'm still monitoring these eggs.

Yesterday this was a caterpillar:

 Today it is a chrysalis. When I saw it, it was wiggling around, and I don't know if that was because it had just become a chrysalis, or because chrysalides are capable of reacting to stimuli. It is not uniform in color, part being patterned, and part green, so it is possible that it had not completed the process. I meant to check it later and forgot, so I'll check it tomorrow.

 If you compare the two pictures, you can see that it moved. I hope that that fly is not doing anything nefarious, like laying eggs in the pupa. I took a picture of this caterpillar two days ago, if you want to see what it looked like (not that you could see much, because it was wrapped in this leaf).

 Looper

 Firefly

 I think this is probably a stinkbug nymph. There were not as many insects on the black-eyed Susans today, and I only took pictures of ones I did not get pictures of the last two days. There were in particular fewer looper caterpillars to be seen, but that doesn't mean they weren't there. There are a lot of flowers in that patch.

Thrips are very difficult to photograph:

They are incredibly small, and wiggly, and burrow into things. There are a few in this picture.

 Another firefly, different species. You probably can't tell from context, but it is much bigger. Anyway, I assume they are different species, and not male and female of the same species (the two can be very different in size in some insects).

 A couple of hopper nymphs

 Monarch caterpillar

 I don't feel like looking this up. It could be a small wood satyr.

 Fall webworm, I think.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I sometimes think it must be difficult and frustrating to be an ambush predator.