The Dark of Night

 I had some interesting insect moments after dark tonight. 

A couple of months ago, when the milkweed was in bloom, I happened to see one night that there were a lot of moths on the milkweed flowers. Then last night I read an article about how active moths are in pollinating flowers at night. Then in the early evening, before it got dark, I found a couple of moths on the autumn joy sedum, and remembered that there was a night last year when I found some interesting moths on those flowers after dark. All of this clicked together in my head and I decided to go out after dark to look for moths on the autumn joy sedum. I didn't find any on those flowers, but I did find other bugs in the dark.

First, here's one of the moths I found in the evening, as Backyard Bug of the Day:

I don't know what this is. It's not in my book. It looks a lot like a grape leaf folder moth, but not quite.

When I went out after dark, I found several bumblebees who had apparently decided to spend the night there instead of going... wherever bumblebees go at night. It does sometimes happen when the evenings get cool that bumblebees will just chill out on the flowers where they had been feeding. I don't know if bumblebees–or any insects, really–sleep:

 

There were also a couple of earwigs:

 

Female earwig

 Not finding anything else on the autumn joy sedum I decided to check on the goldenrod:

Male earwig

 

I did find one moth on a goldenrod leaf next to the autumn sedum, but it was not doing any pollinating.
 

When I went back into the house I accidentally let a moth inside. Here it is on my wrist when I captured it and brought it back outside.

 That's not all the fun I had with insects in the dark of night. I read recently that if you want to find caterpillars you should go out at night with a black light, because caterpillars floresce under black light. I happen to have a black light flashlight, so I took that outside and looked around to try to find caterpillars, or any bugs that would glow under the light. I found that the bees resting on the autumn joy sedum glowed, which makes sense, because bees see ultraviolet... actually, I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Anyway, I didn't spot any caterpillars, so I went where I knew there was a caterpillar: my dining room:

 Yes, I know, it's a terrible picture. It was dark, after all. The picture doesn't really show how it looked, because it has come out very blue, but the lighter areas glowed green. Interesting that only parts of the caterpillar glowed under the black light. Now, you may be wondering, what caterpillar do you have in your dining room?

This one:

Remember several days ago when I found some polyphemus moth caterpillars? I adopted them to raise in my dining room. This one, however, I only adopted today; I found it on my bug walk. It's a bit bigger than the others, and its features have changed a little. I obviously missed getting this one the other day when I adopted the rest of them.
 

I didn't get a lot of bug pictures today. I didn't see a lot of bugs, and it was windy again, which made photography difficult, and in some cases impossible. So I don't have a lot for Other Bugs:

It was the kind of bug walk where I take pictures of a couple of bottle flies on a log just because I haven't taken pictures of much else.
 

I really like thistle flowers, but not as much as bees do.

 A pair of meadow katydids:

Male
 

Female. I found them both on the same plant, but not at the same time.
 

About two weeks ago I found a monarch caterpillar of an early instar in a clearing in the woods on my forest walk. I went back a little later with my regular camera to take a picture of it, and by then it was gone. I thought it could have been eaten, but I hoped it was just somewhere else on the plant where I could not find it. I looked all over the plant, and didn't see it, but though I may appear otherwise, I am an optimist, so I hoped it was okay. I looked for it several times in the last two weeks (See? Optimist), and had no luck, but today, there it was! Now I realize that this could be a different caterpillar. It doesn't really matter either way. There is a monarch caterpillar on that plant in the woods, and it makes me happy. Of course, once again I had my cellphone, not my real camera. By the time I got back to the house it was too dark to go back for pictures. Too bad I had not remembered about looking for caterpillars with blacklight at that point...

Arachnid Appreciation:

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I think this is a long-jawed orb weaver. It probably looks like it was taken at night in the dark, but I took this on my bug walk. It just happened to have its web on the barbecue grill, which is black, and that is the background.
 

I found this on my late night search:

Goldenrod crab spider with moth prey on goldenrod. These spiders blend in very well on their eponymous plant.