The Bugs in the Backyard: Snap!

A few days ago I was ruing the fact that there were no lady beetle pupae on the back porch tree, because I would have had the entire life cycle of lady beetles on the tree. I thought, however, that there might be one soon, because of the size of some of the larvae. And today...

A lady beetle pupa. It already looks more like an adult lady beetle than the larva does.

The thing I have always found most interesting about lady beetle larvae is that they can move. They are anchored in one spot, but the pupa can be straight up/down like the top picture, or it can lay down against the surface where it is attached. I have always wondered why they do that. I assumed it was defensive, but I couldn't really see how it helps. Being anchored in one spot, they can't flee, and they have no mouth for biting, no stinger (because they don't have stingers anyway in any stage), and not even any appendages. So what is the point in being able to move at all? Well, coincidentally, I read this week (or maybe it was last week, I have lost my sense of time) that what they are doing is snapping down on top of anything that tries to annoy them (from that direction, anyway), and that they can actually crush an insect this way. That seems like a pretty good defense, even if it only works in one direction. As you can guess, when I disturbed the leaf where it is attached, it bent down like this. I came away unscathed.

I didn't see any adult lady beetles, or eggs, but there are currently a lot of lady beetle larvae on the back porch tree, of varying sizes:

These two look just about ready to pupate.

Not that you can tell, but this one is much smaller.

This one has recently molted, I think, with its exuvia on the lower right of the picture.

Another one that has recently molted, with its exuvia

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Wasp. I think it's a male, and I read something about how this is the time of year the males are pushed out of the nest because they don't really do anything useful at this time of year. So it will spend the rest of its life (which will last until the first frost), feeding on nectar. The abundance of goldenrod now is just what they need.

The wasp was not alone; the goldenrod is feeding a lot of insects these days:

You have to look carefully at these next several shots; there are a lot of insects in there, mostly bees and wasps, but also a hoverfly.

And, of course, there must be predators where there is prey. Jagged ambush bug.

Assassin bug nymph

I saw a lot of katydids today, and managed to get pictures of two of them:

This one is a female–note the ovipositor sticking out at the back.

Male, with clasping organs instead of an ovipositor

A hoverfly doing what hoverflies do:

Well, male hoverflies do this as part of their mating ritual. I don't know if the females do it.

Three crickets in descending order of cooperativeness:

Leafhoppers

Yesterday I went on my walk in the woods without my camera, and soon regretted it because I saw a lot of bugs. My husband suggested I could go back for it, but we didn't really have a lot of time, so we just continued on. I remember ruefully thinking that it wasn't likely that the bugs would still be there if I went back for my camera anyway...

... but this bug was in exactly the same place today as it was yesterday. This is a green stinkbug nymph, and based on the size of it, very soon to become an adult.

I found another one, too.

Assassin bug

Bee on a fern

This is one of the creepiest insects in the backyard. I am sure you are wondering why I am even calling it an insect, because it doesn't look like one. This is a larva of a syrphid fly, or hover fly. The adult hover flies feed on flower pollen, but in their larval stage they eat aphids. I found this one on the back porch tree. They are really bizarre creatures, and I am never sure which end is even the mouth.

Arachnid Appreciation: