Weirdness

 There are certain bugs that I have never seen in person, but I know about them because of the kinds of things I read, or things I follow on the internet, or just from perusing insect field guides. There are some that I would really LIKE to see, having a Bug-cket List, bugs I wish would show up in my backyard. And it is fun when I find a new bug and don't have to look it up because I already know what it is, even though I've never actually seen one before. It's more fun when it's something I really have been hoping to see, like the first time I found a stick bug or a hummingbird moth in my backyard.

And then, there's today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

Monkey slug caterpillar. It's not a particularly good specimen–it seems to be missing some "arms," and most of its hair. It should be covered with hair. I wonder if this one has just molted into a new skin, and needs some time for the hair to grow in? Apparently the missing arms will grow back, too. This one was kind of small (although they don't get really big anyway), so definitely possible that it's still developing.  I have read that the hairs can sting, but my caterpillar book says that's not true. The adult of this caterpillar is called hag moth, and apparently the female looks like a bee, and the male looks like a wasp, including having clear wings. Altogether a weird insect.

This is in the family of "slug-like" caterpillars, so named because their prolegs are sort of... not really separate entities, and they looks a bit like slugs when they move. Except that underneath it's really a sort of undulating thing going on when they move.

At the lower end here you can see its head. At this point maybe I should confess that this is NOT a bug I have always hoped to see. Well, maybe a little, just because it's so weird. It is definitely strange seeing it moving around on a plant, but when I saw it I immediately knew exactly what it was.

Let's see if I can upload my video of it... It's a terrible video, because my camera with the macro lens on it is not really a great way for filming, particularly a fast-moving subject, and I was standing in a thorn bush at the time, but there are a couple of seconds that show how it moves:

 

Anyway, it's weird, and that's cool.

 

I walked past the spot where I found it a few hours later and didn't see it again, which is too bad. Sometimes caterpillars will hang around in the same general spot for a while, and it is possible to observe them as they grown and change. It would have been nice to be able to do that with this one. But it was moving around a lot when I saw it, so it was obviously on its way somewhere.

I really don't have much else to share today. It was, other than the monkey slug caterpillar, a spectacular failure of a bug walk. It was a beautiful day, a lovely day to be out in the backyard, but the few bugs I was able to find were just not interested in sitting still to be photographed. So I don't have much to show you as far as Other Bugs:

Blue dasher dragonfly, female

Large milkweed bug nymphs.

And that's it. Except for the spectacular spider I found today on my woods walk. There is a small clearing in the woods that is a wildflower meadow, and there I found a spider that was on my Bug-cket List (even though spiders aren't bugs). I have always wanted to see one of these, and having found one was surprised and impressed, because it is a much bigger spider than I thought it was from all of the pictures I have seen. And now... Arachnid Appreciation:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Golden garden spider, Argiope aurantia. Described in Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America as "large enough to be startling, but completely harmless."

Except for whatever bug that it that is is feeding on. I don't think that bug found it harmless. You can't see the web well, but this is an orb weaver, and it has built its web on goldenrod flowers. And of course I had my phone with me, but not my real camera.