Spreading Wings, Taking Flight

I didn't really expect today to be a buggy day, but since I saw bugs fly past the skylight while I was staring upward during my physical therapy exercises I knew that at least some tiny, winged things were active. Time constraints didn't allow me to to a full bug walk, but I found enough to consider it worthwhile.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Click beetle. This is not a view I often get to photograph. They frequently fly away as I am trying to take their picture, but I rarely get this shot in time.

 And I got it twice today.

 Normal view.

 There were bumblebees in the rock garden again (also where the click beetle was found).

 And for some reason lots of little flies on the front walk.

 You can't see an insect here, but those are galls, growths produced by a plant when an insect has lain an egg inside. The egg hatches and the larva grows inside the gall, feeding and then going through metamorphosis, at which point it will emerge. I don't know if that hole is from the insect (a gall wasp?) emerged–gall wasps, if that's what it was, are tiny–or some predator, also tiny, boring its way in for a meal. I just noticed today that there are a lot of galls on this bush, and I can't believe I never noticed before.

 Only two springtails floating in the plastic cup in the compost pile.

 Candy striped leaf hopper on daffodil, where it was not alone...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Good thing for the leaf hopper, if not the spider, that the predator cannot see this potential prey.

The arachnid I DON'T appreciate: a tick. We've been encountering a lot of them in the woods lately. This one was on a plant where I often find them in front of the house. Today I decided that since people walk by there, and it is a frequent tick hangout, to break off the plant stems, so it will no longer be a popular tick hunting spot. By which I mean a spot where ticks hunt.