Noisemakers

 I hear katydids all summer; in fact, I can hear them right now, but I think today was the first time I ever saw the species that makes the "katydid" sound. There are a variety of different katydid sounds, and if I went out right now and stood on the back porch I could probably single out three, in addition to a couple of species of crickets. But I don't know a lot about which species make which sound. But today, I found a species of katydid that I don't think I have seen before, and when I looked it up, it appeared to be a species called true katydid, and the book said that this is the species with the call, "katy did, katy didn't." It is very strange that in all of these years of hearing them, and seeing katydids in my backyard, this is the first time I have seen this species. And I could be wrong, both about not seeing it before, and in my identification of it. I don't remember every insect species I have seen, and you know that I am terrible at identifying them. But here, I believe, is a true katydid, Backyard Bug of the Day:

True katydid. I don't know what caused that mark on its back, but it enhances its "I'm a leaf" act.

The face is part of what makes me think I have not seen this species before.

There is a particular plant in one of the milkweed beds that is popular with meadow katydids. I see one there every couple of days, always on the same plant, but not always the same katydid, because I have seen both males and females there. It could be the same female, I suppose (one day I saw two, a male and a female), and that could be what is drawing the males there. Today it was s female I saw:

And while we're on the subject of insects that can be heard at night... and all afternoon, for that matter...

 

Tree cricket

The Japanese knotweed remains popular:

I know this is a terrible picture, but I wanted to show the pair of thread-waisted wasps that were flying around the knotweed patch together.

Also a terrible picture, but it illustrates a point about the number of insects on the knotweed; in addition to the mating pair, there's another wasp and a honeybee all in the same small area.

Assassin bug nymph

Today I could only find one group of large milkweed bug nymphs in the milkweed patch, on the pod where yesterday they were all spread out. Today they seem chummier, and more numerous, so I wonder if this is more than one group combined.

I think this is a comma butterfly. Either that or a question mark, a name I always find ironic when I am trying to distinguish between the two species.

I always post the spider pictures at the end of the blog, and by an interesting and convenient coincidence, the four spiders I photographed today were the last four specimens I found to photograph today. Arachnid Appreciation:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

Flower crab spider on thistle 

I don't know what kind of spider this is, but it was on the exact same leaf where I saw it yesterday. It still had a prey insect, but I don't know if it was the same one from yesterday. Unfortunately, today it was not so sanguine about having its picture taken, and I spooked it into jumping off of the leaf and rappelling to the ground, so I don't think it will be there tomorrow.

Nursery web spider

The reason this spined micrathena's web is so tattered is because I broke it with my face.