Weirdness

I almost didn't choose a Backyard Bug of the Day today, because there wasn't really anything worthy except something that I am not even sure is an insect. Or... anything. I'm puzzled. I copped out, eventually, and chose something I probably have already chosen this year, but I don't remember, and I was running out of time, and... this is a terrible run-on sentence, all to say nothing, really. Eh. It was that kind of day.
Backyard Bugs of the Day:

 A pair of red-legged grasshoppers. I checked, and it seems I have not chosen this as a BBotD yet this year, so it's fine. In the rock garden, which was once again filled with members of the order Orthoptera.

As for that other thing...

 I don't know what this is. It could be a larva of some kind, a very small slug-like caterpillar. It could be a growth on the plant. I don't know. It's tiny, and I found it on a chyrsanthemum plant in the rock garden. I'll check tomorrow to see if it's still there, and keep an eye on it to see if it moves or grows.

Anyway, lots of Orthoptera today:

Cricket in the package bin. There was a package in there, too, covered in spider webs and the various detritus to be found in spider webs.

When I opened the back door to go out and do my bug walk I saw a katydid flutter into the milkweed patch and land:

Female

Back in the rock garden...

Cricket

Cricket and grasshopper (and there's some other tiny bug, out of focus, that I didn't notice at the time).

Hopper nymph

Katydids:

Female

Male

Other Bugs:

Assassin bug

The caterpillar book described contracted datana (all datanas, actually) as gregarious, meaning they hang out in a social group. That feels like something of an understatement here.

There were a lot of honey bees on the Japanese knot weed. A lot of bees and wasps in general, but they mostly moved too fast for pictures.

Smaller parasa:

 Cricket and fly

There were a LOT of banded tussock moth caterpillars around today:

I did not see the tiny bug when I took this picture.

Yesterday (I think) I saw three of these hopper nymphs on this purple cone flower. Today there were about ten.

Stinkbug nymph

Stinkbug

Crane fly

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Flower crab spider in the rock garden. The yellow blur on the right side of the picture is the hopper nymph from above.

Funnel web spider in the rock garden

Nursery web spider

Closer look at that nursery web spider

Another nursery web spider. You can't tell from the pictures, but this one is about half the size of the other one.

Do you notice anything else in this picture besides the tiny flower crab spider?

Today was definitely my day for not noticing tiny bugs when I took pictures of them.