The Bugs in the Backyard: Triple

There was a point today during my bug walk when I thought, "I hope I don't see anything else really interesting." I didn't mean it, of course, I always want to see things that are interesting. But at that point I had two Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day already, and didn't want a third interesting thing to make decisions more difficult. Actually, at that point I already had three good contenders of rBBotD, but I had mentally already excluded one. I don't want to post three Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day, it kind of defeats the purpose! And I keep doing it!
So...

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

Yes! There it is! An eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar's osmeterium! To review, an osmeterium is a defense mechanism for swallowtail (and others? I'm not sure which, though) caterpillars. It is an organ that is inside its body until something makes the caterpillar feel threatened, and then it unfurls outward. It looks like a forked tongue, particularly given the false eye spots, although that is not a feature of all swallowtail caterpillars. It makes the caterpillar look like a tiny snake. Supposedly it smells and tastes bad, or gives off something that tastes and smells bad, which helps to defend the caterpillars against predators who decide not to eat the caterpillar because of the smell. I didn't smell anything when it did this. This is such a weird thing.

As you can see, the caterpillar finally moved from the leaf it has been sitting on for the last week. When I went outside to get the mail today I brought my camera, in case I saw something on the way to the mailbox, and I am so glad I did! For some reason, I have no idea why, I decided to detour on the way to the mailbox to check up on this caterpillar. I was disappointed to not see it on its leaf, but I was quickly able to find it further up the branch, as you see here.

So, what, you ask, was it that made the caterpillar stick out its osmeterium at me? I was trying to take pictures of it, and the branch moved in the breeze, so I took hold of the branch with my hand, to steady it, and evidently that caterpillar found that threatening.

It did this repeatedly, furling and unfurling the osmeterium like a double noisemaker, you know, the ones you get a birthday parties when you're a kid, where you blow into it and a paper tube unfurls and then curls up again? Except based on what I know about the caterpillar's respiratory system, this is not full of air. And it doesn't so much curl up again as just... shrink back into itself. Even though this has been Backyard Bug of the Day already (I think), it gets the honor again today because of the behavior that I just had to present here as a new thing.

Like so. I didn't get a good shot of it, but after it was pulled back inside entirely there was a drop of orange liquid on the spot where it had gone. This was an absolute thrill for me to witness and photograph. I was excited the other day just to catch a glimpse of this phenomenon. It was amazing to bet a better look at it, and get some pictures of it to share here. It's also good that I took that detour to check on the caterpillar, because an hour later when I did my bug walk it was gone. I checked all the leaves on the branch, and looked at other branches, and the tree trunk, and could not find it. I hope it moved on, either to eat somewhere else or to pupate, rather than being eaten by something. I would hate for that awesome defense mechanism to have failed.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Cicada! While I was checking on the caterpillar, something buzzed past and sort of crashed into a bush. I knew from the sound, and the glimpse I had of the size, and, frankly, the clumsy landing, that it had to be a cicada. I peered through the leaves of the bush, and there it was. I only got a couple of pictures before it flew away...

... but then when I did my bug walk, I found another. After I took this picture and tried to move closer, it fell on the ground. I don't know if that was intentional, to get away, or if it just couldn't climb well on the metal sign. Cicadas are pretty clumsy insects.

I picked it up. It didn't mind.

I placed it on the tree trunk, and it immediately started crawling upward.

I looked it up, and this is possibly a silver bellied cicada. It is one of the dog-day cicadas, so named for their appearance during the dog days of summer. I hear them a lot more than I see them. They are annual cicadas, meaning they emerge every year, as opposed to the 17 year cicadas, which emerge every 17 years. It is not a one year life cycle for the annuals, though–they actually spend a couple of years underground in their nymph stage. It's just that as a species they emerge every year, even if individuals don't have an an annual cycle.

Shortly after that another one flew by me and landed in a tree. Seeing three cicadas in one day is unprecedented in my backyard. Most years I don't see that many at all, much less in one day.

Yes, here it is, Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:

I finally got a decent picture of that new-to-me cricket, so as promised, here it is as Backyard Co-Bug of the Day.

There's another cricket nearby, but that looks like a different species. Ooh, I just found out what this is while trying to look up another bug: Say's trig. Apparently a trig is a kind of cricket. Possibly a bush cricket. I am short on information here.

The runner-up for BBotD was:

Red admiral butterfly. I did not choose it because I don't think the pictures warrant it, and I think I may have had this as BBotD earlier in the summer. It was nice to see a butterfly today; I hardly ever see them anymore.

There were still a fair number of grasshoppers in the rock garden today, though not as many as yesterday...

... and they were much less cooperative.

Cockroach

These eggs are starting to get darker.

Sharpshooter

Assassin bug and weevil. When I first spotted them the weevil was under the assassin bug, so I assumed the weevil had fallen prey to the assassin...

The weevil walked away, though, and the assassin bug didn't do anything about it.

Candy striped leaf hopper

Ants on a dead slug

These tiny bugs have been running around on this rock on the front steps for some time now. For years their favorite place to run around is a big rock in the backyard, but now here they are. Also for years I have been trying to get good pictures of them and figure out what they are, but both are ongoing problems.

My guess is they are something that does not undergo complete metamorphosis, and goes through a series of instars, but that hasn't helped me in identifying them. There appear to be three instars here.

Spot the caterpillar

Fall webworms in their web. They were doing a synchronized twitching thing. I could not tell what the stimulus was for that.

Some of them were not in a web (there are several webs on this tree), but eating leaves. This is my hazelnut tree, and I am not keen on this infestation, but it's late enough in the season that it won't have any impact. The leaves will be falling off soon enough.