Choosing the One

Most of the time I decide during my bug walk which bug is going to be Backyard Bug of the Day, because obviously I know what's new, what I haven't seen yet this year, what's a rare find, what's a rare opportunity to get a photograph. Today on my bug walk I found something new, something (actually two things) I haven't seen yet this year (or that I forgot I had seen this year), and something that I have only rarely seen and even more rarely been able to photograph. Four choices... or at least, that's what I thought during my bug walk. I contemplated the possibility of four Co-Bugs of the Day, which is ridiculous. I decided to choose one, and since things I haven't seen before are always the priority (because when I started doing Backyard Bug of the Day, my rule was that any bug could only be featured once, and that was easy at the time, because I had just started), the new bug wins. And it's still amazing, perhaps more amazing every time, that after all these years I am still sometimes able to feature bugs I have not seen before. And this makes twice in the last week or so.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Astylopsis macula, a beetle from the subfamily of Flat-faced longhorns.

Other Candidates for Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Spotted apatelodes caterpillar. First one I've seen this year. I usually see the yellow ones, the white ones are rare for me.

 Oh, I forgot about this one. I guess there were five candidates for BBotD. I think this is a two-spotted tree cricket. It's always nice to find a pink bug, you don't see a lot of pink in the insect world. And again, where was this when I was featuring the variety of Orthoptera in my backyard a few days ago?

 Eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar. I thought this was the first one I have seen this year, but then I remembered that I did see one a couple of months ago.

It looks like it is levitating over the surface of the leaf, but it is actually resting on a silk hammock it has made for itself. Eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillars spend a lot of time resting.

 They look very different in the different instars of their caterpillar stage. In the early and mid-stages (this is a mid-stage) they look like bird droppings. This one also blends in pretty well with the blemishes on the leaf.

 Female pelecinid wasp (I think). What looks like a truly terrifying stings is actually an impressive ovipositor. I have only seen these a couple of times in the 7 years I have been observing my backyard bugs. It would be BBotD if I had gotten a better picture.

 Other Bugs:

I saw this little caterpillar on a branch above my head...

... I gently pulled the branch down to try to get a closer shot, and the caterpillar used a typical caterpillar defense and just let go. So, I got a closer shot on the ground. It looks a little bit like a banded tussock moth caterpillar that has just molted, and hasn't gotten its color back, or maybe an early instar?

After being everywhere yesterday, I found only one banded tussock moth caterpillar today (unless the one above is one).

Who is hiding behind those leaves?

Pale beauty geometer moth. That is its name, not my assessment of it.

It is always funny to see a lacewing larva walking around, because it just looks like a pile of debris walking.

You can just see its legs...

Here you can see a leg, an eye, and the pincher-ish bits on the front of its head.

Want to play a round of Spot the Katydid?

I found yet another conehead katydid today. I only saw it because it moved, and once I scared it, and it jumped away, and I really had a hard time finding it again in the grass.

This one is another adult, and I found it in the same area where I found the first one. This one is an adult, with developed wings, but smaller than the first one I saw, so I wonder if this one is male–as long as the ovipositors are, once the wings are fully grown it's sometimes hard to see them.

The caterpillars on milkweed–it looks like once again a lot of them didn't survive, but there are still a few. There were not many on the leaf either live or otherwise, so I am wondering if they wandered off, or if they were eaten by something else.

The autumn joy sedum is very popular with bumblebees right now:

And one other bee.

Bumblebees were everywhere today, actually:

Dragonfly

You can see the wing of the bug it's eating.

Moth

 Wasp on goldenrod

Looper caterpillar

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Harvestman with a mite, and missing several legs

Flower crab spider