The goldenrod and the asters have gone to seed. For pollinators whose life cycle extends to the first frost these are lean times. I haven't seen a bee in over a week; there was one inside one of the fall-blooming crocus growing in a planter on my front porch, that I startled and scared away, poor thing. I am happy that there are flowers blooming there, but it's not much. I am surprised I have not seen more bees and other pollinators there (although, it was raining most of last week). I have been waiting quite impatiently for some other flowers to bloom...
Three years ago I planted some late-blooming, perennial chrysanthemums, and I think this year they are so late-blooming that it is too late for the pollinators. This one has been slowly, slowly, slowly opening, and today it has finally bloomed. I was expecting to see a bee or hoverfly, or some other insect on it, but nothing at all. Alas. And to add to the futility of it all, I think we are going to have our first frost this week, and the plants are going to die before they get to really bloom in full. [Edit on Tuesday, November 2: We are forecast to have our first frost tonight. I got only TWO DAYS of blooming from this plant, which doesn't even have any other buds. Hmph.]
Fungus Update:
The mushroom with the weird goop on it had no goop today, and was taller than yesterday. There were a few ants left when we went by at the beginning of our walk (before dark)...
... and an earwig on it when I went by the second time (after dark).
The other mushroom had a couple of these flies on it again.
Backyard Bug of the Day:
March fly. Male.
There was a swarm of them over the front porch when I went out to get the mail:
In case you have ever wondered what a March fly looks like in flight.
It is the males who do this aerial dance.
I found more of them on my walk in the woods. I didn't see any swarming, and there weren't any plants that had a lot of them, like I saw the other day, but I did see individuals on leaves all along my walk. They were all male, too. This is the second year in a row that I have only been able to find male March flies. Usually I will find females basking on leaves while the males dance together, which I think is how they look around for a mate. Anyway, it would be easier for me to show you the difference between the male and female if I had pictures of both, but the males have big heads that are all eyes. The females have much smaller heads. I assume this has something to do with the fact that the females just sit around waiting for a mate, while the men actually go flying around trying to spot one. The males have to be able to see better, both to find a mate, and to avoid predators while they are flying. Don't take any of that as fact, though, because I am just guessing the reason for the observable morphology and behavior.
It was a beautiful day in the woods today:
Today was sunny (and chilly!), and a lot of the trees have already dropped all of their leaves, so a lot more sun filters through into the woods, but there are many trees that are still green, and others with colorful leaves, so the sense of seclusion remains, and everything is bright. Honestly, though, there were not as many bugs as I thought there would be, after my recent walks. I don't know if it's because it was daytime, and I have mostly been seeing bugs at night, or because it was only in the 50s today, or because it was cold last night.
Other Bugs:
When I went out today I checked the tree where I saw so many candy striped leaf hoppers last night, and to my surprised there was only one leaf left on the tree. There was one leaf hopper on the leaf. This is not that leaf; I saw a couple of them in the woods, too.
I think this is an ailanthus webworm caterpillar in the process of becoming a pupa.
This moth was in the exact same spot on this tree yesterday.
Little moths on tree trunks was a theme today:
Brown marmorated stinkbug. Invasive, sadly.
I don't know what this is, but I think maybe some kind of tree louse?
I am not sure if this is the same thing:
Bristletails:
One of the interesting things we found in our woods was a bathtub that had been set up with a pipe that directs water from a spring in the hillside into the tub. From what we figured out, which was then confirmed by a neighbor, it was put there as a water trough for animals (there used to be cows there), and it still is full of water. It was full of slimy, smelly mud as well, from decades worth of rotting leaves, but we shoveled out the muck a few months ago. Right now there are this autumn's leaves and a lot of water, and I looked too see if anything was living in there, and found copepods. I have no idea how they got there, but there they were. I have read that you can find copepods almost anywhere there is water, including puddles after a rain. But it still doesn't explain how they got into the bathtub... oh, wait, duh, they probably flowed in with the water from the pipe. Never mind me...
There were springtails there, too:
They are also fans of puddles, but instead of swimming in them they walk on top of them.
The swarm of beech aphids has dwindled, but there are still some tight clusters on the branch:
They don't seem to have much concern for personal space.
Here a couple are secreting honeydew.
Wasp
Another wasp, a tiny one on a crocus petal
Crane fly, also on a crocus petal
Arachnid Appreciation:
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I used to find these spiders on a particular tree in my backyard every year around this time, so regularly that I have mentally named them autumn spiders. The last few years they have not been on that tree, but lately I have been finding them on a tree in the woods:
I think this is a female. It is much smaller than you might think from this picture.
Harvestman on the veiled lady mushroom.
