Little Bugs

Another bug walk cut short by rain. The bugs were scarce today, possibly because the weather has turned chilly again.

Most of the bugs I saw today were tiny, including Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Tiny beetle

Midge, I think:

 Male, based on those antennae.

 To give you a sense of how small it is, it's on the left of this flower cluster. Of course, not knowing how small these flowers are (on a sassafras tree), it may be difficult to tell. But the flowers and the insect are small.

 Rove beetle. Not as tiny as today's other bugs, but a smaller species of rove beetle, I think.

 Gnat

This one's not tiny, but it is a nymph, so it has a bit of growing to do. Assassin bug nymph, on the same leaf where I saw it a couple of days ago, but without prey this time. This is on the hazelnut tree, and it occurred to me that it can be very helpful to have predatory insects on plants that you want to be protected from insects that want to eat the plant.