Hot and Buggy

 Well, here goes, writing a new blog post... 

Today is day 4 or 5 of the latest heat wave, and I debated whether or not to go out looking for bugs. I wanted to get outside before the temperature hit 90ºF, but it was one of those mornings where you just don't really get your act together like you hoped, and it was 89ºF by the time I was ready to go out. But then... it dipped to 88ºF... and then 87ºF... so, not really expecting much in spite of it being below 90ºF, I went outside... and saw a LOT of bugs. SO MANY bugs! More bugs than I have seen in days!

But they didn't want their picture taken. Still, I did get quite a few, so here we go... (and by the way, it was 90ºF when I came inside).

Backyard Bug of the Day:

A tiny, pearlescent, gold-accented moth.

Other Bugs:

 Here's where it become a problem that I have not been able to blog for the last few weeks. I have been following the progress of these caterpillars on a milkweed leaf, but I am posting this without having posted the earlier pictures. So it's not as exciting when I say that I can now tell that these are, in fact, fall webworms, because you haven't seen the earlier stages when I could not tell and was only guessing. But today I could tell that these are, in fact, fall webworms.

 Here's another one that I have been following the progress of for weeks; sort of ironically, I think I fist spotted it the day after the blog site stopper working, so it's been weeks of progress, including some very interesting pictures early on where I learned things, and several days when I could actually see the caterpillar inside this extraordinary structure. I think it's a bagworm moth caterpillar (that seems redundant to say...). I would say it is pupating now, but I have noticed that sometimes it hangs its "bag" on a branch or a leaf for a day or two, and then goes back to eating.

 Planthopper

 

 Praying mantis, still hanging around on the same plant, but not upside-down today.

 Cocoon made of a rolled-up leaf fragment

 Candy-striped leafhopper

 Planthoppers

 

 Beetle

 

 Wasp on goldenrod

 If I had gotten a better picture of this I would look it up, but because it would not pose for me I will not give it the satisfaction. I used to know the name, but I can't remember. Red-headed borer, or something like that...

 Looper caterpillar

Moth. These are everywhere, and have been for months. Sometimes walking in the woods it's like reverse confetti; they hang out on the ground, and when I walk by they flit up into the air to land somewhere else. When there are a lot of them around it can be fun to watch.

 Arachnid Appreciation:

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 Flower crab spider on daisy fleabane with wasp. The spider had been hiding, and kind of freaked out when the wasp landed and stared feeding on the flower. It didn't make a move to attack the wasp, so I think maybe the spider felt that it was in danger itself.