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