A Windy Day

I'm too tired to think of anything interesting to say about my backyard. I was going to write a whole thing about a tree today, but my pictures didn't come out well (it was really windy today, and overcast), so let's just get to the bug pictures.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is a metallic wood-boring beetle of the species Brachys aerosus. A new species for me. I wish it had allowed me to get a closer picture, because it's quite stunning.

Other Bugs:

 Sawfly larva

 Fly

Leaf hoppers:

 Moth

 Those wasps that keep swarming in the front yard, but these two were in the backyard, and this time none of the other wasps tried to get involved in their relationship.

 Sawfly larva

 Ant tending to some plant hoppers

I think this is a tarnished plant bug.

The Woods Are Hopping

The weather has turned terribly humid the last couple of days, which is horrible for humans (well, for me, anyway), but I suspect that it is just fine and dandy for frogs, because we saw so many on our walk in the woods today that I lost count. I only got pictures of a few of them, not even representing every species we saw, because some of these frogs have incredibly impressive leaping abilities. I'm not telling you anything you don't know here, but still, to actually watch them is quite an entertaining thing. It is like if I could suddenly leap fifty or sixty feet from standing. I'm still trying to regain full leg strength after my knee surgery (and preceding injury) from just over a year ago, so I can fully appreciate, and kind of envy, that kind of springing ability.

Now, some frogs:

 I tried looking all of these up, and wasn't terribly successful at finding good identifications, but this is a wood frog. We saw a lot of these today.

The next three might all be the same species, and that species might be American toad:

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Grasshopper. A nymph. I rarely see grasshoppers like this. I thought maybe this would be distinctive enough that it would be easy to look up what species it is, but that was not at all the case. So, all I can tell you is that it's a grasshopper nymph.

 You probably can't judge how small it is from the picture, but I would say less than half an inch.

If you knew next to nothing about tree identification, even less than I do, you might possibly think that this is some kind of fruit growing on this tree. However, this is an oak tree, and oaks, as you probably do know, produce acorns, not fruits that look like this. While these were produced by the tree, they were caused by an insect; these are galls, which are growths that the tree creates, stimulated by an insect. The insect lays its eggs in the tissues of the tree, and the tree makes this (though not all galls look like this). Then the insect egg hatches and the larva develops inside the gall. These are oak apple galls, I think, and the insect that caused them is a tiny wasp called Amphibolips confluenta. These galls are probably a little over an inch in diameter. It's quite a spacious abode for a tiny wasp.

 Sometimes I just want to take a picture of a flower...

 Moth

 Flies. The larger one is the female, I think.

 Sweat bee

 This looks like a bee, but it is a fly; a robber fly, I think. There is something very wrong with its wings. I don't know if it just emerged from pupation and the wings are not expanded yet–I don't really know about fly pupation–or if they are truly deformed. As you see it here, it is on a stick jutting out of the ground. It seemed to try to take off and fell to the ground.

 I saw another one shortly after that was in much better shape, but since that one could fly, and fast, I didn't get a picture of it.

 Bee

Arachnid Appreciation:
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This is a trash spider. Guess why it is called that.

I found this abandoned web, covered with pollen. I imagine it to be very frustrating for spiders when something like this happens. With all that pollen stuck to the web, it probably becomes very ineffective for catching anything, with the stickiness covered in powder.

Learning Nothing

I ate my lunch outside today, and the whole time I was dining, I was watching a bug on a milkweed plant about ten feet away from me. I figured I should probably grab my camera and go take some pictures of it, because even though I couldn't see exactly what it was, I could tell it would be a good find for today. But I didn't want to interrupt my lunch, so I just kept watching the bug, and figuring that since it had been wandering around on the plant for quite a while, there was a pretty good chance it would stay there until I finished my lunch. Then, just as I was finishing up, I saw it crawl down the stem into the grass. There should be a lesson in there about procrastinating, except that I was still able to find it to take picture, because it really stands out and I could see it crawling around in the grass, and when it crawled onto a plant that I didn't mind plucking, it meant I could take the pictures standing up, instead of crouched down low, trying to get shots on a milkweed plant that is probably not even a foot tall yet. So I basically did not learn any good character-building lessons from this. Hopefully I've got enough character for now. I write a bug blog, maybe that's character enough?

Obviously, that bug is Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Milkweed leaf beetle

 My favorite thing about it is that it is partly blue, my favorite color. I am ignoring that the rest of it is orange, my least favorite color.

 It is one of many milkweed insects. In fact, there are other milkweed beetles.

I told my husband today that whenever he sees a good photo of a butterfly, he should be impressed. I said that because I have a great deal of difficulty taking good pictures of butterflies, so when anyone manages it, everyone should acknowledge their skill, and probably their tenacity. And possibly, as in the case of this next picture, just their sheer luck. Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 I didn't even know that I took this picture. That is to say, I was taking pictures of this American copper butterfly when it flew off. I just didn't know that I actually captured this shot. Most of the other pictures I took, the ones where the butterfly was actually sitting still, are not worth posting, but this lucky shot is the only reason I am even posting this butterfly at all.

 Problem number one: I couldn't get close to it. But here's a look at the underside of the wings.

Other Bugs:

 I wonder how many times in the last couple of weeks I have walked right past this caterpillar?

Possibly copper underwing moth

 Sawfly larva

 These little wasps are still swarming around the cinquefoil-filled area of the yard, flying low and tussling with each other.

 Flower beetle of some kind

I saw two species of click beetles today:

 

 You probably can't tell from the pictures, but one is more than twice the size of the other one.

 

 I didn't notice the bug in this shot when I took the picture. Can you see it?

 Aphid

 Hover fly on dame rocket

 

 I didn't notice the beetle when I took the picture.

 Somewhere in there is a spittle bug nymph.

 Twenty-spotted lady beetle

 

You know I am have a live-and-let-live policy with insects, and as long as they are not harming me or my house, I let them do their thing, but this wasp nest on our picnic umbrella had to go. Not just for our convenience and safety, but because it's just not a good place for a nest. We lower the umbrella frequently, because when it's windy it has a tendency to take off, and it's windy a lot.

 Backyard Bird of the Day:

 I can't help but wonder if this is the turkey whose nest was raided, and now, not having eggs or pullets to take care of, she's just wandering around on her own.