Silk Threads

Sometimes when I do my bug walk I return repeatedly to check up on certain insects, if I think they might be doing something interesting, or if they are definitely doing something interesting, but they're doing it slowly and I don't want to spend an hour crouching over a flower. Like today, for instance...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I spotted this caterpillar on a black-eyed Susan, and wondered what it was up to. I leaned in to take its picture–I could see the entire caterpillar then–and immediately moved its head out of view. I snapped the picture anyway, and made a note that I should come back and check it out later. Note the condition of the flower here. The white blur, by the way, is a small cocoon.

 When I came back I had to turn the flower around to see the caterpillar, because several of the petals had been pulled up by then. I don't remember how much time had passed in between–maybe half an hour?

 The caterpillar had been at work spinning silk threads to attach the petals to the flower head.

 I was glad when it crept out, so I could finally get a picture of its front end...

 ... and I got to see what it was doing. Do you see the threads between the flower head and that diagonal petal?

 The caterpillar spun several more, moving its head back and forth from the flower head to the petal, attaching silk threads.

 Then it grabbed the petal...

 ... and pulled it up a bit.

 More attaching of threads from petal to flower head...

 Pulled up some more...

 The pattern repeated for a while, and then I continued my bug walk. But I came back one more time before I went into the house...

... and this is how the flower looked then. I think by now there is a chrysalis inside there.

Other Bugs:

 Female monarch butterfly feeding. Afterward she flitted among the milkweed plants, possibly laying eggs.

 Sweat bee

A blue theme for the Odonata today:

 Damselfly

 Dragonfly

 This probably looks like a safe place to collect nectar, but there's something lurking among those goldenrod flowers...

 Finally, one of those huge bees that feeds on these flowers.

My daily searches for insects have made me very vain about my ability to spot tiny things, but it's kind of amazing how often I don't see things when I am practically looking right at them.

I saw the hopper, and did not notice the caterpillar.

 I saw the stinkbug nymph, and the two hoppers on the left, but I didn't see the leafhopper on the right until it moved.

I saw all three of these, though.

 Two different species of stinkbugs

 Spined assassin bug nymph

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Back on the subject of things I don't notice, I didn't see that spider when I took the picture.

I did see this one, though.