Arbitrary Season

It's Labor Day weekend here in the United States, and for many years the day after Labor Day would be the first day of the new school year. I don't think there are many places anymore that have that tradition, most places now I think start the school year in August, but Labor Day weekend is still regarded as the end of summer in some ways. Not that it has anything to do with an actual change of seasons on that first Monday of September. The leaves are not going to start changing color on Tuesday. It could still be hot for another month. And the bugs in my backyard carry on with the bug lives, caring more about day length, temperatures, and food availability to determine the seasons.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Dragonfly. A species of meadowhawk.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Spotted cucumber beetle. On pokeweed, not cucumber. I realize that many people don't like this insect, because it's a garden pest, but I've never seen one eating the cucumbers in my garden (we didn't plant any this year, but we have in other years). I only see them on other plants, and I think it is a native species, so I have nothing against it.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Fourteen-spotted lady beetle

Other Bugs:

 I think this is a fruit fly.

 Katydid, blending in pretty well, I think, on the black-eyed Susans that are past blooming.

 Last week I saw several species of katydids over a few days. Today I saw a lot of katydids, but they were all this species.

 Moth

More banded tussock moth caterpillars:

 

 

Assassin bug nymphs:

 

 The eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar has changed to its final color scheme. It still blends in pretty well with the leaf.

 I didn't get a picture of it, but for the first time ever I got a glimpse of a caterpillar's osmeterium, which is a weird, tentacle-like organ that is inside its body and pokes out when the caterpillar is feeling threatened. It supposedly smells bad–I did not smell it, I barely caught a glimpse of it. It's a strange thing.

 The false eyes are more prominent in this instar.

 Fall webworm in a web (you can see a few in the background, too).

 Net winged beetle

 Stinkbug nymph

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

Fly

I think a lot of people who say they hate bugs would probably admit, if you asked them about specific kinds of bugs, that they don't really hate all bugs. I think most people like butterflies (except for one friend of mine who considers them just okay, tolerable, basically, but doesn't really get what people see in them). Maybe lady beetles, because they are portrayed in a lot of places as cute and charismatic. Fireflies, but maybe because in most cases when people see them all they see is the enchanting light, they don't actually see the bug. But I don't think there are many people, even among people who don't hate bugs, who really like flies. At best, they are generally thought of as annoying. They are widely viewed as filthy, and vectors of disease, which I think some are, but certainly not all of them. Their tendency to be found on gross things we'd rather not look at is certainly not in their favor.

Now, I am not going to say I love flies, but I do think that some of them are pretty cool. They're not all feeding from the garbage can. A lot of them feed on flowers, and are pollinators. Some of them act as biological controls of caterpillars, which have charming characteristics, to be sure, but as we know from gypsy moth caterpillars, having too many of them around is devastating. So it is a good thing that there are flies who help keep those populations in check. Many flies are beneficial insects. And some of them are interesting to watch. Like today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

 Just kidding. I mean, this is the Backyard Bug of the Day, but I have better pictures of it than this. I wanted to post this, though, to show that this fly looks a bit like a bumblebee. It's about the size of a bumblebee, and it moves a bit like a bumblebee.

 But it's definitely a fly. I am pretty sure that this is a species of tachinid fly, a family of flies that are parasitoids. They lay their eggs on other insects, and their larvae... well, let's just say that they are not gracious guests to their hosts. But like I said, biological controls are important to keep a balance in an ecosystem. There are plenty of things that would be happy to eat this fly, too.

 You would think that a fly this distinctive would be easy to identify from my bug books, and you would be wrong. So all I can say, with almost complete confidence, is that this is a tachinid fly.

And while we're on the subject of flies...

 

 

 This is a fly, too. A thick-headed fly, even though it looks like a wasp. Also a parasitoid insect, specifically on bumblebees. The adults feed on flower nectar. I like that they look like they are dancing when they walk around on flowers.

Other Bugs:

 Katydid

 I think it was last week the Backyard Bug of the Day was a moth that had just eclosed. The next day the moth was in the same place, on the plant where it had eclosed, and had found a mate. After they were gone the next day, I looked for eggs on the plant, figuring that was where the moth would lay them, but didn't see any. I think I just didn't look hard enough, because now there are most definitely eggs there. Now, if there had been eggs this color, I would have seen them, but I think they were probably green, and blended in with the plant, and the red color is a color change. Which means they are probably about to hatch. I'll check them tomorrow to see.

 Eastern tiger swallowtails have false eyes on their backs, and look like they have a huge head, but in reality they have a normal, small head underneath all that which I have rarely ever seen while looking at one.

 Grasshopper

 Green stinkbug

 Wasp

 Sharpshooter

 Leaf-footed bug

 Tree cricket

 Moth

 I saw a cricket like this last week when there were Orthoptera all over, and was a bit confused by it, because I had never seen a cricket that looks like this, and it kind of looked like it had broken wings, so it was hard to tell what it really looked like at all. But now I see it I realize it's just a new species for me. It would be Backyard Bug of the Day if I had a better picture. It actually flew, which is something I don't think I have ever seen a cricket do before.

 

 Caterpillar

 

 Moth

 

 Wasp with impressive ovipostior

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Nurse spider

 Jumping spider with cricket prey

 

 Nurse spider, right before a bumblebee landed near it and scared it away.