The Insect Orchestra

I love classical music, but I am not at all intellectual about it. I just like what I like. I don't have a great musical ear, and am not qualified to be critical about it. I know there are people with more musical talents and a great ear who hear nuances of the music that I don't. I can't always pick out different instruments, or maybe I can if I try, but I don't notice them when I am just listening. I just enjoy the music. My husband, though, who is a clarinetist, will hear a piece of music and notice the clarinets immediately. I might not even notice there are clarinets in it if he doesn't point out something about the clarinet part. I hear the whole without really teasing out the different flavors of the music. However, on summer nights like this (and it is still, technically, summer, in spite of the nights we've had this past week that were in the 40s), when there is a chaotic symphony of insect noises playing in the moonlight, I will stand on the back porch and try to count how many different distinct insect songs I can hear. It's katydids and crickets that are looking to woo with music, and there is a real cacophony tonight. I think I was hearing 6 different species. Some of them are continuous, like the tree crickets and at least one of the katydids. Sometimes you can actually tell that there is a call and answer between insects, or, since I think it is only the male katydids who play, more of a dueling banjos situation. "Pick me!" "Pick me!" "Pick me!" "Pick me!" they are saying in katydidish melody (and katydids don't exactly have a lilting, melodious sound). There are others that only chirp occasionally, chiming in with their part of the chorus once in a while. It is amazingly loud out there right now. And all of that sound is coming from such small creatures–although some of the katydids are rather large as insects in this part of the world go. It's hard to say, really, if there are a few really loud insects, or a million joining their small voices together. Anyway, it's a fun and fascinating way to enjoy the night.

I didn't do a full bug walk today, mostly because of time constraints, and partly because, having found a cool bug right away, I felt like I didn't really need to try very hard, as it was getting dark, figuring I had my Backyard Bug of the Day already. But then I remembered that I had already awarded that insect with Backyard Bug of the Day earlier in the summer. I didn't have many other choices, having given up the hunt too soon, but fortunately I do have two decent candidates. Truth be told, I was trying to not be outside as it was getting later in the evening because I didn't want to be out there when the mosquitoes start biting. Mosquitoes infected with eastern equine encephalitis have been found in several nearby towns. I would really rather not get infected, so I am avoiding them.

I did end up with two Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day, but one of them was not in my backyard, it was in my dining room.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Late last night, just before I went to bed, I checked on the monarch caterpillar I have been raising and saw that it had gone into its pre-pupation J pose. It attached itself to one of the milkweed leaves that were its food source.

We went out for the afternoon, and I thought I might find a chrysalis when I got home. The caterpillar was still in the J pose. I got ready to go out and do my bug walk and looked at the caterpillar again; the tendrils (they're not antennae, but I don't really know what they are) had gone limp, a sign it is about to turn into a chrysalis, but the J still looked pretty tight, so I didn't think it was ready, and went outside with my camera. Half an hour later, when I came back into the house, I found this:

 The black thing at the top is the skin that it has just shimmied out of. It got stuck up there, which I have heard can be bad for them, so I carefully removed it. This is fairly early in the process...

 A while later. Not quite finished forming up, but it's a chrysalis!

Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day #2:

 Caterpillar. Could be a new species for my backyard; at this point, it's hard to tell, because I don't remember them all anymore. Too many bugs have been seen...

And now for something to help with the mosquito problem–Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 

Other Bugs:  

 

Virginia Ctenucha. I was going to choose this for BBotD, but then I remembered it had been chosen already, and I looked it up; this was BBotD one day in July. On autumn joy sedum, which this year has been much more attractive to Lepidoptera.

 Like this moth, for example.

 

 Still there.

But what's not still there? Most of the contracted datana caterpillars:

 There were only three left, two large ones, and one of an earlier instar. I can think of three things that might have happened to the rest. 1) They moved to another branch, and I just could not find them. 2) They were all eaten by predators. 3) They left to go pupate. I think 3 is probably the most likely.

 Bumblebees on goldenrod. There were a LOT of bumblebees around today, impressive considering it was around dusk that I was out looking for bugs.

The population of aphids on that vine (the ant is still there, just not right on that part of the vine at this moment) has exploded:

 Aphids are "born" ready to give birth to young. They reproduce through a process called parthenogenesis, which I cannot explain, but is a bit like cloning.

 Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.