Here or There

I stood among the milkweed today, thinking about how much I didn't want to be outside in the heat and humidity, and trying to rationalize not going for a walk around my entire backyard today when I could just spend a few minutes in that patch of flowers, and see more bugs there than I would see in the rest of an acre or so combined. So that's how I am going to structure my blog today, bugs in the milkweed patch, and bugs not in the milkweed patch (and basically it will prove how wrong I was, but I did still find a lot of bugs in the milkweed).
First, Backyard Bug of the Day:

I am pretty sure this is a grapeleaf skeltonizer moth. That has nothing to do with the moth as a moth, because in the adult stage of its life it feeds on flower nectar, as you can see here. But as a caterpillar it feeds on grape leaves, and it skeletonizes them, meaning eats away everything but the veins in the leaf, leaving what looks like the skeleton of a leaf. I have seen skeletonized leaves before, but not on grape vines. Although I have these moths in my backyard (not that I see them a lot, but they have been there over the years), and have lots of grapevine, I don't think I have yet come across one of the caterpillars for which the moth species is named.

I have seen several of these the last few days; I think there were three in the milkweed patch today.

More insects on the milkweed:

Not a grapeleaf skeltonizer. This is a much smaller moth.

Yes, the usual bees and skippers...

... and then a tiny looper caterpillar came along...

Can you find the fly, also?

Thick-headed fly. Still working on getting a good in-flight picture, but oddly enough, most years I can't manage to get a picture of one feeding on a flower, because they don't usually stay long enough.

Fly, sweat bee, and thick-headed fly

I have seen a fair number of lady beetles on the milkweed, but not many aphids, which is what they eat.

Well, here's one.

I found another monarch caterpillar today.

This is the one from yesterday. You can't tell from these pictures, but this one is a little bit bigger.

Speaking of lady beetles...

Here's a fourteen spotted lady beetle...

And here are some twenty spotted lady beetles:

These are not on milkweed, they are on dogwood. For the last week there have been a lot of both larvae and adults on that tree...

... and it looks like there will be more.

These next two were on milkweed, but not in the main milkweed patch:

Bugs NOT Found On Milkweed:

Longhorn flower beetle. I think this flower is moonflower.

There's quite a bit going on here...

Obviously, stinkbug nymph. I thought it was feeding on the other nymph, the white one, which is a hopper nymph of some kind, but I am not sure; it may be feeding on the vine. On the lower left you can just see an out-of-focus ant, and...

... there's some other, very small larva on there.

I have been seeing these wasps for weeks, flying around me, but I have failed until today to get a picture of one at all. I probably should have made it a Co-Backyard Bug of the Day, but maybe I'll get a better picture another day (HA!):

There were two here, but one crawled under the leaves and did not come back out. This one has only one antenna.

The baby stinkbugs

Katydid nymph

I managed to find this one in my caterpillar book (Caterpillars of Eastern North America by David L. Wagner); last time I was looking in the wrong places. Using caterpillar guides is a bit like using the dictionary–it's easier to look up how to spell a word if you already know how it's spelled. I was looking for this with the furculas, because I assumed that that tail was forked like furculas,' but it's not, it's just a single spike. It's not related to the furculas, so it was in a different part of the book. This is a rose hooktip caterpillar, a name derived from what the moth looks like, not the caterpillar. I found it on a viburnum plant, which I only recently learned the name of, and that was helpful in identifying the caterpillar–it often helps with caterpillars knowing the name of the plant they are on, because the guides sometimes list their host plants, which in this case is viburnum.

 I did not see the insect in this picture when I took it. Can you? (Hints: it's on the left side, and you can see its legs). On purple coneflower bud.

I didn't count up how many of the bugs from today's post were from milkweed/not from milkweed, but I didn't get pictures of all the bugs I saw in either setting, so it wouldn't exactly be accurate. Yes, there were definitely enough bugs to do a post just from the milkweed patch if I was too lazy for a bug walk. But by no means was that the only place I found bugs today.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Crab spider hiding among milkweed buds, and blending in pretty well.

A dramatic scene:

This jumping spider was on top of this leaf, until I spooked it and it crawled underneath. I looked underneath, and saw that there was a hopper nymph there. The spider didn't seem to notice or care...

... and crawled back to the top of the leaf, again to get away from the camera...

This back and forth happened a couple of times, and I assumed it was just not hungry, or not interested in the hopper nymph for some reason, until...

... suddenly it was. I wasn't fast enough (not even close!) to get good pictures of that dramatic turn of events.