Bug Henge

I have no theme today, just pictures.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Some kind of ichneumon wasp, I think.

Other Bugs:

 Small wood satyr butterfly

I don't know what this is...

 It's really tiny. That's a daisy fleabane flower, they're pretty small.

 Possibly a mealybug?

 Hover fly

I found this curious conglomeration:

 It's like an insect Stonehenge.

 There's a lot going on here. There's all of those things that appear to be chrysalides, there's tiny wasps, and there's weird, little things...

 I don't know if the wasps are preying on these, laying eggs in them, or tending to them.

 And there's those little brownish things...

 I have no idea what those are. They look sort of like eggs. Maybe the wasps laid the eggs and their larvae will prey on the chrysalides?

 Hopper nymphs

I REALLY wish I had gotten good pictures of this...

 I am posting the pictures even though they're terrible, because this insect is so interesting. It looks like a big wasp or hornet, but it's a moth. Look at the face. That's a moth face.

 Those are moth wings, and moth antennae. It's an excellent wasp mimic. So good that I didn't even realize it was a moth until I looked at the pictures on my computer. When I took them I thought it was a wasp. It's too bad it would not stay still for me to see it better, and get better pictures.

I took my camera with the macro lens on my forest walk today...

 There are a number of insects and spiders that could be inside these rolled up ferns, from what I have read, but I wasn't about to disturb them by unrolling them.

 This is a mayfly, caught in a spider web. There are a lot of spiderwebs suspended over one of the streams, and it definitely appears to be a good place for a web, because there are a lot of insects that fly around over the stream. We've been seeing these webs for weeks. It's funny that of all the walks we have taken in woods over the years we've never really seen that.

 Water strider on the stream, but there are other insects in the water...

 Water beetle of some kind

 Possibly shivering pinion moth caterpillar

 There was another on a nearby leaf.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Crab spider

 Orchard orb weaver

Feeding on something very small