Heads Up

 I didn't do a bug walk today because it was the kind of windy that makes you feel uneasy about being near trees, and my backyard is full of trees. I did bring my camera out because of a butterfly that made a promise it did not keep, but the creaking and swaying of tree branches unnerved me, so I only have pictures of insects that were on or near the front walk.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Beetle, possibly a soldier beetle, on a garden gnome

 

The feats of strength displayed by ants are legendary, but what made this particular exhibition most extraordinary is that the worm it wrangled was not dead, and was not going along willingly:

Bees on dandelion

Tradition

 Traditions can have a certain charm, but there are many that people keep up even though they don't enjoy them, simply because they are tradition. I am not a fan of irksome traditions for traditions' sake. I definitely don't like being forced to observe them. And yet, every spring I engage in the tradition of taking bad photographs of bee flies because I can't get a good photograph of one:

This is about how close I can usually get.

Can't see it?

Here's a closer look. The bee flies (there are multiple species) look and fly like bees, using mimicry as a way to trick potential predators into thinking they can sting and should be left alone. 

Here's a shot with the wings still.

 If tradition holds up, I will not see another bee fly for the rest of the year, much less get a closer picture.

 Today was highly beetly in the backyard again (and I did a full bug walk for the second day in a row!), and today a couple of them were more cooperative... to an extent.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

A beetle, obviously. I am not going to look it up. It really wasn't very cooperative, and I don't think it deserves the courtesy of having me attempt to find out its name (which I would probably fail to do anyway if I tried. There are a LOT of species of beetles).

 Like I said, it was not that cooperative:

More Beetles:

The leafy spurge continues to attract a lot of ants, and today a click beetle.

And a tiny fly.

I looked this up once, and have forgotten what I read about it. These tiny beetles are amusing, with their curious shape the seem a little bit like sci-fi vehicles to me. Or medicine capsules. What I imagine about them is more interesting to me than what I read.

And of course, we here all know that fireflies are not flies, but beetles:

I think this is courtship...

... and this is what follows.

Other Bugs:

Bee on garlic mustard, an invasive, tree-killing plant

Stilt-bugs on crab apple blossoms:

Ants have been everywhere the last few days, including quite a lot that are crawling on the side of the house, probably trying to find a way in. I hope they don't. I prefer ants in the wild. Like this one:

An ant on sassafras. One of the many, many, many things I have learned since I started studying the bugs in my backyard is that bugs are not only to be found on the ground and on picnic blankets (and really, I have spent a lot of time on picnic blankets in my life, and very seldom have there been any ants on them. I think popular culture has wrong them), but also in trees.

Assassin bug nymph

Moth blending in

Arachnids I DON'T appreciate:

I found three ticks on this dead sapling trunk. It seems like every year there is an article published somewhere or other (you might say it's a tradition!) that says that, based on the weather in the spring, "This is going to be a bad year for ticks." What they really mean is that it is going to be a good year for the ticks, and a bad year for anyone and anything that does not want to be bitten by a tick. They seem to say this no matter what kind of weather we are having–I am surprised I haven't seen such an article yet this year, because so far it has been a good year for the ticks, and a bad year for trying to avoid them.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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The Attraction of Dandelions

 If yesterday was full of flies, today was about bee butts and beetles. I have a lot of dandelions blooming in my backyard right now, more than I usually get in my yard, and when I did my bug walk today (and I did a full, real bug walk today, covering the ground I used to cover when I did this every day, plus a bit more), most of them had something like this going on:

I don't really understand how nectar works in flowers, but in dandelions the bees and other pollinators seem to have to delve pretty deeply to get what they are after, and end up covered in a lot of pollen. Very smart little flowers. Speaking of which, I have decided to observe No Mow May this year, waiting until June to mow my lawn so that the spring wildflowers can feed the pollinators until there is more food available. Good news for the dandelions and violets, and the bees who love them.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

A species of leaf-footed bug. Note the back leg that looks a lot like a bit of dried leaf. You can also see the very long proboscis that is folded under its body.

And back on the subject of bee butts, Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Carpenter bee, male. The male patrols the area near the nest, acting aggressive to chase off intruders, even though it can't sting and it's all just bluff. I enjoyed watching this one confront and usher off wasps and a butterfly. It buzzed by me with a warning once, but mostly just ignored me.

I took a lot of pictures today, and saw quite a few interesting bugs, but for a variety of reasons (the wind is not my friend) not very many of them are worth posting, so here's what I've got to show for all of that–Other Bugs:

Another bee on another dandelion

The leafy spurge is blooming, and it is always attractive to ants.

It is also attractive to beetles. Speaking of which, I mentioned that I saw a lot of beetles today, but many of the pictures that did not turn out were the ones of beetles, so the visual evidence of how beetly the day was in my backyard is lacking. 

Assassin bug lurking in among the needles of a small pine tree

Candy striped leafhopper on a crab apple blossom

Female crane fly:

I realize that looks like a fearsome stinger (and also the nib of a fountain pen), but it's not at all a dangerous appendage. That is her ovipositor. This species of crane flies lays her eggs in the ground, and she will kind of bob along on the ground, jamming her ovipositor into the dirt, laying eggs as she goes.

Stilt bug. Come to think of it, I saw a good number of Hemiptera as well, and they were slightly more accommodating about being photographed. 

This weevil, which is a species of beetle, tried to be uncooperative by playing that trick favored by beetles, but most especially weevils, of avoiding the camera (and more to the point, predators, or what they perceive as predators) by pretending to be dead and rolling off of whatever plant they happen to be on. But this clumsy weevil got caught on the plant, so it didn't get to plummet to the ground and disappear in the grass below, and I got to take its picture anyway. It did eventually manage to drop off, and landed in my hand, from which I let it keep tumbling to earth as it intended.

Geometer moth, on the door when we came back from our woods walk after dark.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Trash line spider

Spring Warning

 It's not just bugs and flowers I am looking for at this time of year. As much as I love being outside, finding new signs of life in the spring, I am aware that not everything in nature is completely safe, and so I keep my eyes open for certain hazards. Ticks, obviously, are something I look out for any time the temperature is above freezing. But there's one thing that kind of sneaks up on us in the spring that is hard to see at first, and can be extremely troublesome if you don't know it's there. 

Poison ivy:

You all know, I am sure, that poison ivy has three leaves; "Leaves of three, let it be." Well, there are a lot of plants with three leaves. What you also need to know is that in the spring, the leaves are really small, really shiny, and red, like it's warning you not to touch it. I found these growing on a tree in a spot where we recently shifted the path, because a tree came down and we decided it would be easier to move the path than the tree. Spotting this on the tree, we then checked all around that area, because there's never just one plant, and found several more, some very close to the edge of the path. Definitely good to know that there's poison ivy there as we walk by there almost every day.

I wasn't going to do a bug walk today, but I happened to see a bug on a flower when I came home from an appointment, and since I brought the camera out to take a picture of that bug, I figured I might was well look around for more. I found a few, and then put the camera back in the house. We left for our woods walk a little while later, and on our way out I found an interesting bug and went back to the house for my camera, and then didn't want to go back to the house to leave it, so I brought it on my walk. Counting that first one I went back to get the camera for, I found both of today's Co-Bugs of the Day, two very different kinds of flies, on my walk.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

When I saw this on a sapling I wasn't even sure it was a bug. I thought it might be a bit of... I don't know what. Part of a plant, I guess. I poked it, and it didn't move, so I was pretty sure it was not a bug. But I decided to look at it through the macro lens anyway and saw these eyes looking back at me. Of course, as soon as I tried to get pictures, it moved. No problem at all when I poked it, but will it sit still for a picture? Suddenly not so willing.

Quite an interesting face.

Close-up look at the compound eye

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

I think this might be a species of march fly. I spotted it on the trunk of a cedar tree, went back to the house hoping it would stay there while I was off getting the camera, took its picture, went for about an hour-long walk in the woods, came back, and took a couple more pictures of it because it was still in the same spot. If I am correct that this is a march fly (and I am not sure it is), my guess would be that it is a female because of the relatively small eyes.

Flies, or rather, Diptera, were the Order of the Day. Here's a couple feeding on dandelions; you can see the pollen stuck to their wings, which they probably delivered to other blooms. Bees are not the only pollinators.

I was surprised to come upon a cluster of snow-fleas on a tree trunk, mostly because I haven't seen any in a while, so I thought that the season for that was over:

I found what appears to be an egg mass, hatched, on a tree trunk, too. This is about half an inch long. I can't tell what that thing is poking out of the middle. It seems to be something trying to get in, rather than something trying to get out. Whatever hatched from those tiny holes must have been incredibly small indeed.

 

 Having twice startled a mourning dove from the same tree, I realized today that I had probably stumbled upon a nest, and looked up to find this:

Mourning doves have surprisingly small, fragile nests.
 

If I am out at the right time of day (and today I was), the sunlight catches on spider webs all over the place, with tiny spiders on them. Arachnid Appreciation:

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I think these two are the same species, one a dorsal view, the other ventral, not respectively: