Insect Ballet

If you don't like bugs, if you find them gross or terrifying, then swarms of them are pretty alarming. They can be unnerving even if you do like them, if they are huge masses of insects, but for smaller swarms, if you're not in an eeew! or ick! state of mind toward bugs, it can be quite fascinating to watch. Sometimes swarms just look like a bunch of bugs flying randomly in a group, but I have noticed that some of them look choreographed, coordinated, and dance-like. The corps de ballet of the insect world. I saw an adorable, intriguing swarm of what appeared to be gnats today:

 It was a small swarm, and tightly configured. They moved with a definite routine; I wish I could describe it well, but I'll just say it was like a cascading waterfall of insects. They would sort of flow down, and then move back up into the swarm.

 They were definitely coordinated.

 See how they mostly orient in the same direction, even turning together?

 They also didn't all dissipate when I got close, at least, not at first. One of the things that makes swarms of insects so hard to photograph is that when you get close they tend to disperse. These kept up with their dancing.

Backyard Mammal of the Day:

 Chipmunk. Oddly obliging. The population seems to have rebounded a bit after the crash of... I don't remember if it was last year or the year before. The crash after the population boom.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

I think this is a carrion beetle, Oiceptoma inaequale. I found it on the compost pile, and the reason I don't have a closer shot of it is because I didn't want to kneel down in a pile of rotting vegetables. I am not going to tell you what I read about this bug. This is a bug that is not beautiful or glamorous (although I did read, and will tell you, that it has beautiful metallic blue on the underside of its wing covers, I just didn't see those), but that I am grateful for because of the service it provides to the world. And I'll leave it at that.

I felt something crawling on my arm during my bug walk, and that is how I found Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Lace bug

 I moved it to a tree where I can pretty reliably find lace bugs when they are in season. Obviously it is a host plant; I have never found eggs (I don't know what they would look like), but I have found nymphs of various instars there. This is a rare view of the underside of the insect.

Other Bugs:

 This is the time of year when stilt bugs seem to be everywhere.

 Moth

 Candy striped leaf hopper

 Water strider on the stream in the woods

I am going to break one of my blog rules today and post a picture taken by someone other than me for Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I saw a couple of spiders on my walk in the woods today that had built their webs across the stream. My husband took a picture of this one–with my camera.