Flying Away

I think I may have forgotten to mention that I was taking the day off yesterday. I was not home during daylight hours (I left just after dawn), so I was unable to do a bug walk. I did have an interesting encounter of sorts with a bug, though it was nowhere near my backyard. I was riding my bike when a bee passed me. Curious about how fast a bee can fly, I checked the speed on my bike's odometer. I was riding at 9.7 miles per hour. I can't tell exactly how fast the bee was, but obviously it was faster than that. I was impressed. I don't think I have ever given a thought to the actual speed of insects, even when I see them zoom by me in my backyard. Now I know that a bumblebee can go nearly 10 miles per hour (and who even knows if that was its top speed?). I wonder how fast dragonflies go...

I did not release my butterfly before I left yesterday morning, because it was cold out; ditto for when I got home, which was after dark, so I released her this morning:

 Her first flight was not impressive: she landed here in the grass. But her second was much better, and she took off into the sky, too fast for me to take any pictures of her in flight before she disappeared.

I had three bugs for Backyard Bug of the Day, found during my bug walk, but then I saw something during my "Sky Time" this evening, and I decided to use that one insect instead (I didn't want to do four again). Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Firefly larva. I saw this glowing on the ground while I was outside enjoying the sounds of the night (it was cloudy, so there wasn't much to look at in the sky). Of course it would not glow for me when I brought my camera out, but it's still an interesting insect.

 

 Unlike adult fireflies, which only glow on their back ends, I think that the larvae glow over much of the underside of their bodies. Sadly, I cannot show you this, and wasn't even able to confirm it.

The firefly larva was walking across a large, flat rock at the bottom of the back porch steps, and in the couple of minutes that I was out there observing it, a couple of other insects walked by:

 Sorry for the bad picture. Ground beetle

 Cricket

 Other Bugs:

 Aphid

 Thread-waisted wasp

This was one of the bugs I had chosen for Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Small milkweed bug. I read this described once as black with red markings. I thought that was odd because I had always thought of it as red with black markings.

 

 Daily photo of a banded tussock moth caterpillar

This was a Backyard Bug of the Day candidate:

 Weevil

 Leaf hopper nymphs

 Flower fly

 Sweat bee. This was another BBotD candidate.

 Sawfly larvae

 Something pupating

 Honey bee

 Assassin bug nymph

Virginia ctenucha moth

Another frog I almost stepped on.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Orb weaver

I think this is an orchard spider.