Present and Accounted For

 Sometimes it's hard to notice when something isn't there. I've gone on and on about how there are fewer bugs in my backyard this year, but given how many bug species I normally see, it's hard to remember what, exactly, I am not seeing. I know, however, that there are things I am used to seeing that have not been spotted this year. And I know, for instance, that normally I see a lot more species of caterpillars than I have been seeing, even if I can't exactly list for you what I should have seen. I was reminded of one today that I normally see quite a lot of that has been absent this year... until today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

White marked tussock moth caterpillar. Another one of those visually striking caterpillars that becomes an unremarkable, brown moth. The male does, that is. The female is unusual in that she doesn't have wings. But she is not very interesting to look at, unlike her caterpillar self. I have said it before, that these look like they were put together out of leftover caterpillar parts, or like they were made by a seven year old child with a random selection of craft supplies. Usually I see these everywhere. This is the only one I have seen this year.

 

It was a pretty buggy day in the backyard today, though, which I knew it would be well before I went out for my bug walk. I did my physical therapy exercises for my knee in a place where I could look out a skylight, to alleviate the boredom of leg lifts, and from there I could see the tops of some trees, where there were a lot of insects flying around. From that distance I could not tell what they were, but I am guessing bees, wasps, or flies. What I don't know is what they were doing up there–presumably they were feeding, but on what I don't know. The trees are not blooming now. When I was done with my PT I opened the window and stuck my head out to find out what the day was like, and looking out onto the flower bed below I noticed not only that there were a lot of bees, but that another recent visitor to that bed had returned:

The red admiral butterfly was back. And it stayed all day; I didn't go right outside to take a picture of it when I saw it, it was at least an hour, and probably closer to two, when I did my bug walk. And it was there during my entire bug walk. And then the rest of the afternoon. It came and went a few times, but it spent most of the day on these flower. Once I startled it and it took flight... and landed on my shirt. I saw it once land on a goldenrod plant, but it must not have liked that, because it only stayed there for a few seconds before going back to its favorite flower, the autumn joy sedum.

The autumn joy sedum remains the most popular place to be if you're a pollinating insect right now. As you can see, the red admiral had plenty of company:

Look at the other flowers...

There were a lot of honeybees, and bumblebees...

But there were other bugs enjoying the flowers, too:

Bottle fly and honeybee

Sweat bee

Another butterfly came by, a skipper. Possibly a silver spot skipper.

It also stuck around for quite a while, but not all day.

Hanging out with the bees

Sweat bee

Since it was a warm evening, I decided to go out and see if the autumn joy sedum was as attractive to nocturnal insects:

I saw a couple of moths on the leaves, but none on the flowers.

 The flowerbed where the autumn joy sedum is also has some goldenrod, which attracted its share of bugs, including wasps:

Bottle fly

I posted some grasshopper pictures last week, after lamenting the lack of grasshoppers this year. This is the first one I have seen since (which I found right after thinking about the fact that I haven't seen a grasshopper all week). They are still scarce this year.

 

Large milkweed bug that has just molted into adulthood. The exuvia it has just shed is beside it on the leaf.

Katydid

 One insect that has been abundant lately is the stilt bug:

They don't seem interested in some of the other flowers that are very popular, the autumn joy sedum, or the Japanese knot weed that was recently in bloom, but they are on a lot of other flowering plants (they are also difficult to photograph, which is why I haven't been posting a lot of them).

Many stiltbugs on goldenrod, with beetle. None of them looked like they were interested in the beetle.

There is a patch of asters in my backyard, and most of the plants have at least one stilt bug on them. As I attempted to take a photo of these two a photobomber appeared; a bee mimicking flower fly.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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With all of the insects that are visiting the flower bed with the autumn joy sedum, it's obviously a good place to be if you're a predator like a spider. I frequently see nursery web spiders there, and this one has been in the same spot for several days:

Strangely, a few hours after I took this picture, the spider was gone.

There was another one nearby, though:

The orb weaver has not built a web in the last few days, or rather, nights, as that is when they usually build them, and I think that might be because it has been really cold overnight all this week. But tonight was warmer, so when I went out after dark, I checked on the spider, and found...