Bug Bath

Sometimes I gauge how many bugs I can expect to see by how many bugs I happen to see out the window before I go out for my bug walk. It's not an especially accurate measure. On rare occasions I see something out the window and go out right away with my camera to take a picture of it. This morning I was sitting at my computer and happened to glance out the window and saw something moving ever so slightly on the edge of the birdbath...

Juvenile praying mantis

Not having fully developed wings, it can't fly yet, but when I got too close it hopped off onto the foliage.

After I took the pictures of the praying mantis, I was walking back to the house when something caught my eye, and that is how I found today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think this is an Ichneumon wasp of the genus Trogus. It was interesting for a couple of reasons.

First was its wings, which, depending on what direction the light hit were either a gorgeous purply blue, or...

... pitch black. But also the way it flew was not at all wasp-like. It looked more like a moth when it was in the air. There are moths that are wasp mimics, but this has no moth characteristics, it's definitely a wasp.

Cleaning its antennae

 

Other Bugs:

Fall webworms on their web on a milkweed plant. Other than these caterpillars, the milkweed patch was bereft of insect today.

The praying mantis I have seen every day for the last week has become an adult. I know this is a terrible picture, but I posted it to show she's got her full wings now. I don't know when she got them; I didn't look at her closely yesterday because of where she was perched. I wonder if the reason she has been hanging around in the same spot for a week is because she was getting ready to moult.

I think this is a tachinid fly. It's huge.

Tree cricket

Moth

I found two other crickets, one adult:

And one juvenile. Note the lack of full wings.

I ended my bug seeking today the same way I started, with a praying mantis. I don't know if it was the same one from the morning; it was in a different place, but not too far away for a praying mantis to walk over the space of most of a day:

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Spined micrathena. As usually happens with these lately, I almost walked right into the web.

Orchard spider. Coincidentally, I saw only two spiders on my bug walk today, and their webs were only a few feet apart.