Just Some Bugs and Things

 I don't really have anything to say today... Here are some pictures of the bugs in my backyard...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Flower longhorn beetle. I don't know which species. On hydrangea flowers.

Long-legged fly. On hydrangea leaf. There were several on the leaves of this plant today.

Japanese beetles

There are leaf hoppers and planthoppers of various kinds all over the backyard. Often multiple species or individuals together:

There was a third one just out of this shot.

 

There were nymphs as well as adults.

I think these are two different species, adult and nymph.

Another monarch egg. No caterpillars sighted today, though. Or monarch butterflies.

 

Oh, look, one of my photographic nemeses. 

Tachinid fly on the back porch

Broad-necked root borer beetle. Female. I think she was laying eggs in this plant. Note the ovipositor.

She retracted partly it when I got close.

The root borer beetle was spotted on our walk by my husband, and I went back to the house to get my camera, which I then carried for the rest of the walk. I didn't get pictures of bugs in the woods, but of frogs:

The woods are full of tiny frogs and toads lately.

Jagged ambush bug with prey on Queen Anne's lace. But it was not the only predator there...

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Queen Anne's lace can be attractive to pollinators, but I generally stay away from it because I am allergic to it. There are two very good reasons for them to stay away from this particular flower head, though. The ambush bug you already saw, but there's another predator in there...

Family Day

 Instead of a Backyard Bug of the Day today, I have a Backyard Bug Family of the Day, because I found several insects from the same family of Tettigoniidae. 

Meaning katydids. Three different species.

Backyard Bug Family of the Day:

I don't know species of katydids. I know this is a female, because that green thing sticking out of her back end is an ovipositor. I can also tell that it is a juvenile, because its wings are not fully developed.

Obviously different species of katydid, another juvenile. There were two of them on this plant, and each of them leapt away when I tried to get close for a picture. They are phenomenal leapers.

And the last species of katydid for the day:

This one was on the screen door when we got home in the evening. It is an adult, as you can see from the fully developed wings. I think it is a male.

A different perspective

 Other Bugs:

This is not just a pile of plant debris, it's a pile of plant debris stuck to the back of a larva that is using it to make potential prey think that it is just a pile of plant debris. It's always funny to see these walking around. They remind me of one time I was outside walking in the rain with my niece when she was about two years old, and she was holding an umbrella; as she was so small, walking beside her I could not see her, all I could see was the umbrella apparently bobbing along by itself. It was really funny and adorable. I am pretty sure this is a lacewing larva. You can see a leg underneath all of that as it walks around.

The entire time I was outside mowing the lawn today this bee was resting in this cucumber blossom.

I watched a monarch butterfly lay this egg on a milkweed leaf. In other monarch news, I could not find the tiny caterpillar from yesterday. That does not mean it was eaten; it is very small and hard to see, so if it moved somewhere else on the plant it would be difficult for me to spot it.

Every Bug is Special

 Today every bug is Backyard Bug of the Day because I got pictures of three of them, and don't want to make a decision. I didn't do a bug walk, I just took pictures of bugs that I saw when I saw them (and unfortunately was not able to get a picture of a green lacewing that was in the car with us when we were out this morning, because I didn't have my camera with me).

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

I went out to photograph the monarch egg that I saw yesterday, and it was gone–I wasn't completely sure which leaf it had been on, but the one I thought was the right one had been half eaten (by what, I don't know), and apparently the egg was eaten along with it. But then I found this tiny, newly hatched, first instar monarch caterpillar on another leaf.

Backyard Bug of the Day #2:

Pearl crescent butterfly on marigold

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:

Fishfly on the back door screen when we got back from our night hike.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Jumping spider and... another spider.

Spider with a fly in its web

Breaking the Rules

 Today I broke my rule about not chasing after butterflies to get a picture. I didn't get a picture, which is why I have that rule, because chasing the butterflies never works. It was a monarch, the second one I have seen in my backyard today, and she laid an egg, which I forgot to go out an photograph with my macro lens, so I don't have a picture of it today, but I did manage to get a picture of another bug because I chased the butterflies, so...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Katydid. Female. On top of the mail that I dropped on the driveway in order to pursue the butterfly. After I took this picture I shooed her away so that I could pick up the mail and bring it in the house. She's a juvenile, which you can tell from the fact that her wings are not fully grown (and the fact that she's pretty small).

Homecoming

 I have been away for almost two weeks, and missing my backyard. When I travel I sometimes wonder what's going on in my backyard. What is blooming? How much rain have we had? Are there any monarch caterpillars on my milkweed plants? What am I missing by being away?

Usually when we travel we get home late at night, but this trip worked out differently, so to my great satisfaction we were able to go for a walk in the woods when we got home. And on that walk I found a cool bug.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think this is a root borer beetle. It is, by local standards, a really big beetle.  I wish I had had my camera with me, although I am not sure it would have been cooperative about it.

I had my husband put his finger next to the beetle for a size reference, and the beetle didn't like that, and took off running. It was pretty fast.

As an added bit of perspective, this tiny wood frog is less than half the size of the beetle. We saw at least a dozen tiny frogs on our walk, from at least two different species. This is the only one I was able to photograph. They leap impressive distances.  

To answer one of the questions above, by the way, I looked for monarch caterpillars on my milkweed plants and didn't find any. Alas.

Taking Bug Breaks

 I had a LOT to do today, and the bugs that I took pictures of were distractions from what I was doing, which I am not complaining about. I, as you know, really like to see cool bugs, and if it means that it takes me a little longer to mow the lawn (or even start mowing the lawn), that is not a problem.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Damselfly. It was hanging around the back porch area most of the afternoon. Mostly it rested on the stones of the path, but at one point it landed on this plant for a few minutes, and was very obliging in staying still for some photos.

Backyard Bug of the Night:

Green lacewing. We saw this bug just as we were setting out on our night woods walk. It was flying, and in the beam of our flashlights it was so graceful and delicate. I watched and waited for it to land, and when it did, I went back into the house to get my camera for photographs. This specific insect is special to me for reasons I don't want to explain, so I am always happy when I get to see one. I am especially happy to see one someplace other than the wall of my front porch, which is usually where I find them, attracted by the porch light.

Other Bugs:

Katydid nymph and candy striped leaf hopper

Katydid nymph

I think this is a nymph of a leaf-footed bug

Little wood satyr butterfly. These have been all over the backyard for the last several days. They are hard to photograph because they flit from place to place, but never land for long, or let me get close to them. As I was sitting on the back porch cooling down after mowing the lawn, I saw one land in this thicket. I had my camera handy and cautiously moved closer to try to get a picture, and just as I was in range, a wasp landed right next to the butterfly and scared it off. I was frustrated, but I stuck around, watching the butterfly, and a couple of others, flutter around. One looked like it might land right next to the damselfly that was resting on a rock at the time. Then once again one landed in this thicket, and AGAIN another bug landed nearby and scared it away! Finally this one came, and you can see that I wasn't able to get close, because of where it was among the leaves. It was interesting, though, to see it resting with its wings open like this (as it had the first two times it landed there, if this was the same one); usually they rest with their wings closed.

By the way, among the several species of butterflies I have seen this week was my first monarch sighting of the year. It swooped past me, over my head, when I was in the vegetable garden, and zoomed away.

A Dragonfly

 After the last remnants of Tropical Storm Elsa passed through here today we went for a walk in the woods to check for downed trees and to see how much the streams were flowing. The answer to the first: none that we have found so far. The answer to the second: robustly. I didn't bring my camera, so of course I found a perfectly cooperative bug practically begging to be photographed. The wind was less cooperative; it was still strongly breezy (although we never really got the forecast high winds. It really was not a tropical storm by the time it came through here), so that was a challenge, but the bug was very complacent. Or maybe I just think of it that way because it looked like it was smiling.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Dragonfly

Starry, Starry Fly

 There are some bugs that I have such a hard time getting photos of that if I get a decent photo I make them Backyard Bug of the Day, no matter what else I find, although if I find something else good, I will have co-bugs, because I can't ever make those decisions. Today I got some pretty good shots of a bug that is hard to photograph, but it is also the only bug I got any pictures of, so by default it HAS to be Backyard Bug of the Day.  So it's a good thing at least a couple of the pictures are decent, or I would have nothing to post at all.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

This is a fruit fly, a species from the genus Eutreta, a native species.

There are three things that I think are cool about this insect. One is its snazzy eyes.

Another thing I like is the shape of the wings. I like the way they can curl them up a bit, although I didn't really get a good shot of that. But they look a lot like airplanes sometimes.

The thing I like best about these flies, though, is the white spots on their dark wings that look like a starry sky.

It's such an unusual look. I really love when I get to see one up close.

Generally, these fruit flies do not sit still for photos. But this one was unusually cooperative. I didn't even have my camera outside when I spotted it, and it stuck around while I went inside to get it. And though it was walking around on the plant a bit while I tried to get pictures, it also would stop for a second or two, and I really thought this was going to be my big change to get REALLY good pictures of it. But...

There was another insect crawling around on the leaf, and it kept walking past my subject and causing it to move in response. So, I got pictures like this one, with my subject moving just as I take the picture, and the annoying interloper a blur in the background. I don't even know what kind of bug that was, but it was an unwelcome addition. Such is the life of an macrophotographer.