Mesmer-eyes

 I don't really have any overarching commentary on my bug walk today. I walked. I took pictures of bugs. That pretty much sums it up. There were a lot of spiders. I took my camera on my forest walk. 

Backyard Bug of the Day:

This is a flower fly of rhe genus Spilomyia, possibly species longicornis. There are two species in the book that look identical to me, and only one of them lists the species name (longicornis, obviously).  Also obvious–it is a yellow-jacket mimic. But it's a fly, a harmless pollinator.

This is my favorite picture from today. There's the fly, a bumblebee, and in the background, an ambush bug. Neither the been nor the fly went anywhere near the ambush bug.

This fly has amazing eyes.

 Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

Found on my forest walk. We see a lot of frogs and toads in the woods; I hardly ever see them in my regular backyard anymore, which I think may be due to the drought.

 

Today was incredibly windy, so I had a really hard time taking pictures. I saw a lot more bugs than I got pictures of. Other Bugs:

 

Robber fly

 

Planthopper

I found several stinkbug nymphs:

Two of this species, I think; this one is an earlier instar...

... than this one. Based on the pale color of this one I think it may have just molted.

I also found several of this species, also different instars:

Fly

Cricket

Milkweed tussock moth caterpillars

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Nursery web spider. It did not attack the bee. In fact, when the bee got closer in front of the spider, it is the spider that backed off.

Tiny spider on the trunk of a tree

I don't know what it is, but that yellowish thing on the side of its abdomen is a parasite.

I found this spider on my camera, and it was rather reluctant to leave. Male spined micrathena.

 

Just yesterday I commented to my husband that for the last several days we haven't had the problem of walking through spiderwebs on our woods trails, and I wondered if the "season" for the spined micrathenas was over, if there is such a thing. Well, today I walked into, or almost walked into, at least ten.

 

Long jawed orb weaver, I think: