Crick, Crick, Crickety Crick

The Cricket Chorus performed with great gusto last night, heralding a gorgeous day. I stepped outside confident that there would be bugs galore in the backyard today.

I was wrong again. Granted, I saw some bugs I have not seen lately, but it was still hard to find bugs, and there weren't many around. I guess it is because it is not the temperature that brings bugs around, but the availability of things like food. With few flowers left, and the leaves all dying, there's not a lot to eat. I kind of makes me wonder why there are still any bugs at all. Especially aphids. Why are there still so many aphids? Well, there's still plenty of food for bugs that eat aphids (and that is a lot of bugs, actually).

By the way, it was in the 70s today, and people are talking about snow for the weekend. I am hoping they are wrong...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 A hopper! I think this one might be a frog hopper. I also think this is one I have not seen before, because that face is really unfamiliar.

 It's on the side of the house, which, as I will show you, was a really popular place for bugs today.

 I don't know why the color of my house looks different in different pictures. There is obviously something about my camera that I don't understand...

It almost has a pink look to it...

Other Bugs on the House:

 Brown marmorated stinkbug

 Ladybug larva

 Ladybug

 Wasp. It was carrying something in its mandibles, but I couldn't see what. I didn't like that it looked like it was trying to insert it into the siding of the house.

 Really uncooperative bug

This one is a porch light bug - a really small cadisfly. It's not a good picture, because of where it was, but at least now you know it was there.

Speaking of houses...

At one point during the summer whenever I walked by a certain part of the yard a pair of robins would get really agitated and start scolding me to go away. It was obvious that they had a nest they were protecting, and I did try not to linger in the area, but hey, it's my yard. I can walk by if I want. I could never see the nest, although I didn't try very hard to find it, because I didn't want to annoy the parents that much. Well, now that the leaves are gone I know where the nest is. It is much lower than I would have thought. I see that like the nest that was built in the cedar tree in the back, it is made in part with shredded paper from our compost pile. I wonder if it was built by the same robins (who gave up on that nest when their eggs were taken by a predator), or if it's just a popular building material for robins.

Inedible Fruits:

 Crab apple. Actually, I guess those are edible, but not really worth the trouble.

A species of nightshade called horsenettle. Related to the tomato, but poisonous.

Here's a picture that make it look like I am really bad at insect photography:

No, I was not trying to take a picture of the ladybug in the upper right corner. I was trying to take a picture of that tiny wasp-ish thing that flew away just as I was pressing the shutter. Mostly I think I am a pretty good insect photographer, if I may say so myself.

Random Bugs:

 Yup, if you're an aphid, everyone wants to eat you. This one was stuck on a spider thread, but it was still alive, and I didn't see the spider around, so maybe it got free. There's another aphid on the branch.

 The case moth caterpillars in the yard have gotten noticeably bigger. Not that you can tell from the picture, probably, but just trust me on this. They are still tiny, though.

 A cocoon?

 Here's what I was so happy to see - a wasp-or-maybe-a-bee (I am still confused by a lifetime of conditioning to think flower pollinator = bee) on one of the few remaining asters. I haven't seen wasps and bees lately, and weird as this sounds, I have missed them. I saw a lot of wasps today, and of several species (most of which I did not get pictures of).

 And then look what happened! Another wasp landed on the same flower!

 Weirdly, even as small as the flower was, neither appeared to force the other off.

So here's another one of the pulsating, clear, slug/caterpillar things (I really don't think this is a caterpillar). It definitely appears that the end I thought was the back is the 'head' end. And it has a few dead aphids there...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Sometimes when I am watching (and trying to photograph) spiders I will see them zip along their threads so fast that I can't even see how they are moving. They are just suddenly at the other end of the thread. I would love to see a really slo-mo video of what they are doing, because at the moment it just looks like teleportation.

Righting a Wrong

Today I found out that I was wrong about something I posted the other day, and I found out in a cool way. Let me explain by showing you the Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is a green lacewing larva. Need a closer look?

 Here you go. What's that you say? It looks like a walking pile of debris? You don't see a bug there? Well, how about another angle?

 Hmmm...

 Here you can get a tiny peek at the mouth parts... So what's going on here? Well, remember the other day I posted a picture that I said was a beetle larva, and it had bits of stuff stuck to it, and I wondered why it was just holding onto its prey with its mouth parts, and not eating it, because beetles eat their prey, they don't just suck the juices out of them? Well, that was not a beetle larva, it was a green lacewing larva, and green lacewing larvae do suck the juices out of their prey. The jab them with the prongs of their mouth parts and suck them dry. I am not clear on what they use to suck on them, but that's what the do. Anyway, some green lacewing larvae stick bits of debris onto their backs. And some, like this one, make a big pile of debris on their backs. The one the other day had a few bits, and they were plant pieces. This one has a pile. And what is this pile made of? It's made of the carcases of the insects it has dined on. That's right, it sucks them dry and then piles them on its back to camouflage it and make it easier to catch more insects. Technically this kind of bug has already been BBotD, and recently, but since this one is in a different form, so to speak, it qualifies to be chosen again. Because no way could I NOT make this Backyard Bug of the Day today (and not just because I didn't find anything else eligible. But that is true. I didn't).

 Obviously it is difficult to get a look at the larva, but by coaxing it onto this twig I got a few shots. You can definitely see the legs, and a bit of the head on the right.

Now the head is to the left. This is one of the weirder things I have found in the backyard. It's funny that the green lacewing is a beautiful bug, and it's larva is so gruesome and weird. Also amazing is that I actually found this in one of my bug books. There wasn't a picture of one like the other day, with just a few bits of debris, which is why I didn't get it right then, but there was a picture of one like this. I even looked at it the other day, and thought it was interesting, and ta da! Here it is!

You know what else looks interesting? Stick bugs. Not that I have ever seen one.

Random Bugs:

 I was happy to see this ubiquitous autumn bug on these flowers today because these flowers are weirdly unattractive to bugs. You'd think that being almost the only thing left blooming in the yard, aside from stray asters, that this is where the bugs would all be congregating, but nope. Ever since they bloomed, there's hardly ever any bugs on them. So it's nice to see them being appreciated.

 Some bugs just don't get hide and seek...

 I find aphids to be inherently comical.

 Female snowy tree cricket.

 Not at all a good picture of this bug (I didn't get one), but cool nonetheless.

 I wonder what that little puddle is that this ant is eating.

I am not sure what's going on here, but this appears to be a bee or wasp jammed into a hole in the back porch step.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Here's a zoomed-in look at the previous picture. Note the silk threads coming from the spinneret.