Eyes of a Dragon

Some days I just don't know what to say about my backyard. It's not always poetry. Sometimes my bug walks are prosaic. I always enjoy them, though. Some days they are almost just plain walks, when I don't find a lot of bugs. But sometimes the bugs I do find are so cool that it makes up for not finding very many. I didn't find anything new today, but I did witness a pretty wild encounter on a tiny scale, and found a really cooperative insect to make up for all the frustrating ones.

Here's that cooperative insect, Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Dragonfly. This dragonfly was on the trunk of a tree, and as you can see, stayed still to let me get very close with my camera. The only reason I couldn't get closer than this was because the ring flash on the camera was bumped up against the trunk at this point. Note the amazing compound eyes.

 Note also the cicada exuvia in the upper right of the picture. The only reason I saw the dragonfly at all was because when I walked by the tree I checked to see if the cicada exuvia was still there. I did my bug walk in the late afternoon/early evening, and it was very shadowy in the woods by then. And you can see how well the dragonfly blends in. This picture makes it look brighter than it really was in the woods.

In contrast...

 ... this dragonfly was not very cooperative at all. In fact, this species is almost never cooperative. And those big eyes make it pretty much impossible to sneak up on a dragonfly.

 Wasp washing its face

There are fewer black swallowtail caterpillars on this Queen Anne's lace plant:

 I don't know if more died, if they were taken by predators, or if they wandered off.

 Beautiful monarch egg, on the top of a leaf

 Robber fly with prey

 Looper caterpillar on purple coneflower

 White hickory tussock moth caterpillar

 I found this cocoon on my back porch. It looks like it was probably attached to something by that silk webbing. I have no idea where it was attached, and how it ended up on my porch.

I came upon a tiny drama in my backyard today:

 On a rolled-up leaf I found a wasp trying to carry away a caterpillar. There are several species of wasps that prey on caterpillars, bringing them back to nest/burrows for their young to feed on. I have seen wasps carrying caterpillars several times before. This one appeared to be struggling though. there is a hole in the rolled up leaf, and I could not tell if the caterpillar had come out of there, or if the wasp was trying to shove it in there. I was kind of surprised that the wasp was having such a hard time, though, because generally caterpillars can't put up too much of a fight.

For the answer to the puzzle, we must go to Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 This is the point where I noticed that the reason the wasp was unable to fly off with the caterpillar was because a spider was holding on to the other end of the caterpillar!

 The wasp kept jabbing the spider in the face with its back end, trying to make it let go. I can't tell if the wasp was stinging it or not–the spider didn't react to it, and not all wasps sting (males don't).

I am sorry to have to tell you that I don't know how this ended. I knew it could go on for a long time, and it was hurting my knee to keep crouching there; also, I didn't want my presence with my camera up close to influence the battle by making one of them let go. I don't like to interfere in nature's battles. I meant to check the plant again when I went by again on my bug walk, but I got distracted and forgot. So, I don't know who won, except that it would not have been the caterpillar.