Itty, Bitty Baby

 Aphids are strange little creatures, and very unpopular with gardeners, but I find them cute and interesting most of the time. They are a food source for a great many insects, and have a fascinating relationship with ants. They have a somewhat odd reproductive routine, that sometimes involves laying eggs, and sometimes involves live birth, which is VERY unusual for insects. Also they reproduce parthenogenetically, a concept I have never found a great definition of until today. Parthenogenesis is reproduction with an unfertilized egg. But sometimes they do mate, and lay eggs, and it is as eggs that the overwinter, and apparently they can start giving live birth to new aphids shortly after hatching, and...It's pretty confusing, actually, this whole aphid reproduction thing, which includes something about some aphids being born with wings, and others not, and... well, anyway, I bring this up because of...

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

I think in the middle there is an aphid giving live birth to a nymph. 

I think that these are all the same species of aphid, and my guess is that the different colors are because some of them recently molted. But I don't know.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Wasp

Other Bugs:

The ailanthus webworm caterpillar has moved into a web inside a dried leaf that fell onto the ailanthus plant where it has been living. I think it might be getting ready to pupate there.

There were only a couple of fungus beetles on the bracket fungus today. They both looked like females.

This large milkweed bug nymph (on top of the seed pod) looks like it is about ready to molt.

I did not see case moth caterpillars dangling everywhere today, but I think they were on the plants, and therefore harder to see:

Well, this one was easy to see.

But this one and others blended in very well. 

I do wonder if the reason that there are so many of these caterpillars this year is because of the general dearth of insects. It is possible that there are things that prey on them that are not so abundant this year. Or it could mean nothing at all.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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I haven't seen a crab spider in a few days.