Antics

Aaaah... A warm day... that two months ago I would have called a cold day... It was sort of sunny and in the 60s today, which was wonderful for taking a walk in the backyard. I didn't know what to expect - it was obviously a great kind of day for bugs, but at this point in the year, who knows if the warm weather will bring them out?

It sort of did. And there are Co-Bugs again today... Plus some Bug Comedy.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

Woolly aphid. I know I have posted pictures of these before, but they were half buried in the bark of the tree. Today I spotted a couple walking around. Of course, the fact that they were walking meant that they were not easy to photograph, but I am pretending that the reason the focus is kind of blurry is because the bug is so fluffy. I know that this is a different species than the other aphids I have been posting, but it is kind of amusing to imagine that it's really the same species, but wearing woolly underwear for winter.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 I don't know what these are, but I love their wings. Sort of like a sailboat of some kind. Or maybe a windsurfer.

Bug Comedy:

 I spotted this wasp flitting from leaf to leaf on this plant. I waited for it to land somewhere that I could take a picture of it. It landed on this branch and started to walk along it... And came upon another bug, this thorn mimic leaf hopper...

 ... And just kept walking.

 

 It reached the main branch of the plant and found...

 ... another hopper of a different species. It roughed this one up a bit...

 Then it moved on...

 And somehow the wasp and the hopper managed to get tangled in the thorns of the plant.

 It vented its frustrations by knocking the little hopper down again (Not nice).
I was going to call this slapstick comedy, but I don't think that's a good term to use with bugs... They are probably sensitive about the whole slapping thing.

 So, after that I took some close-up shots of the thorn mimic. An amazing bug. (It has already been BBotD, in case you are wondering why I didn't choose this).

 In order to take close-ups of the thorn mimic I held onto the branch with my hand, and when I was done, I noticed that the wasp had crawled onto my thumbnail.

Random Bugs:

 The lawn furniture is still a good source for bugs. Here's another one of those weird, pulsating things. This one is small, and very dark in color, and looks like it has fungus growing on it - or something stuck to it, anyway.

 I know this looks like that one kind of fly I keep posting pictures of, but if you have been looking closely at those flies, you'll see instantly that this is something else.

 Yesterday I saw a lot of really tiny bugs flitting about in the grass, but I never saw where any of them landed to get a picture. They sort of looking like tiny moths. Well, today I found out that they are these amazingly tiny leaf hoppers.

 Aphid and ant. When I saw these two on the same branch today I thought about something I read about the relationship between ants and aphids, about how ants herd aphids to drink their honeydew, and in return they provide protection for the aphids from predators. Sounds like a good arrangement - after all, it's not like the ants are being parasitic - they are excreting the honeydew, it's not something they need that is being sucked out of them. They are probably indifferent to having it consumed by other bugs. But I have also read that ants will chew off the wings of the aphids to keep them from flying off. Which makes me think that they whole deal with the ants protecting the aphids from predators is not quite as great a deal as it seems to be - if they had their wings, maybe they wouldn't need protecting.  Of course, there's a million things out in the yard that want to eat the aphids, so maybe it's worth it for them.

 You can see the aphid's proboscis stuck in the branch of the tree, sucking out liquid.

Another hopper. I saw so many today.

 I heard more crickets today than yesterday. And I found this tree cricket - on a tree.

 I only found one of these today. I wonder if the rest have completed their life cycle (a nice way of saying they have mated, laid egg, and died).

Itsy bitsy spiders are the theme of today's Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I found this cutie on the lawn chair.

 I wonder if it was contemplating eating that hopper.

 I found this beauty on another chair, in the arbor. This is not as small as the springtail, but it was small enough that without looking through the camera it was nothing but a white speck, and it was only after I looked that I saw that it was a spider.

 Jumping spider. My favorite.

A spider on the side of the house. Another tiny one. The sun was so bright that the house looks white here.

The exception to today's theme - not tiny, and not a spider.

The Hardiest

Huzzah! The blog goes on! There was a freeze last night, but the daytime temperatures were more bug-friendly, so I managed to find a few in the yard, including something new to be Backyard Bug of the Day. I have to say, though, that it is noticeable when there is only one cricket chirping in the backyard. It sounds lonely and melancholy. There were tons of birds today, of many different species, all enjoying the fruits of fall - seeds and fruits, actually.

So today I actually have a Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Cedar waxwing. We get flocks of them occasionally as they are passing through the area. The seem to be really fond of the seeds of the black birch, but today they were actually eating the berries of the cedar tree.

Obviously I took these with the macro lens, and I couldn't get very close without the birds flying away, so not a close-up look.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I found this when I was nearly at the end of my walk, and had already given up on finding a bug to be Backyard Bug of the Day. And then I almost stepped on this walking up the front walk to go back in the house.

 It was in a hurry to get somewhere...

 I'll bet those spines are venomous...

Daily Dandelion:

Random Bugs:

 I had to look really hard to find these today.

 No matter how small you are, when you spread your wings to fly you are majestic.

 Found one of these again today. I am pretty sure now that it is a springtail, because I saw it spring. And then thought it had sprung onto my camera, though I didn't find it there.

 Lonely cricket. Not the one I heard singing, I don't think. Notice, by the way, how many of the pictures are taken on the lawn chairs again today.

 And where is this hopper being photographed? Relaxing on the hammock.

A weevil with a damaged elytrum. Note, by the way, that I called it an elytrum, not an elytra. That is because I have learned that elytra is plural, while either elytrum or elytron are used for singular. Elytron sounds like a robot, so I like elytrum. Anyway, this one has quite a hole in it, and into whatever is underneath (I can't find anything that will tell me if weevils have wings).

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This spider was not in the backyard, but in my living room late last night. It was small, and not moving toward the couch I was sitting on, so I didn't evict it out into the freezing night.

 This spider was the first thing I found when I went out today, and it made me smile. There was another spider on the hose container with it, but that one hid before I could take its picture.

I don't know what made me check the bottom of the rain gauge, but I found a spider living there.

The End is Near

Did you miss me yesterday? I wasn't slacking off, and I haven't quit, but it rained all day, so I didn't get to do a bug walk, and not a single bug was attracted to the porch light, so I had nothing to share. I think that was the only day all year that I was completely unable to go out and look for bugs because of rain. Every other time, even days when we got 3 inches of rain, it has slacked off at some point so that I could go find bugs. I have very little to share today, either. The high the last two days has been in the 40's, and the overnight temperatures have been in the 30s, so most of the bugs are done for the year.

When I went outside for my bug walk today it was cold and there were fierce winds roaring through the treetops. I am not a fan of wind, especially cold wind, but it is fascinating in its way. During a moment of calm (which were few today), you can suddenly hear the roar in the distance, and you can actually hear it coming closer and closer, tearing through the tops of the trees in the woods. You can see them tossing and bending, and the wind comes like a wave, until finally the front arrives, and all around you the trees are being lashed about, and it is so, so loud. And biting cold. And even if there were any bugs to photograph, it would be impossible to do so, because whatever they might be sitting on is tearing violently back and forth. I would guess that whatever bugs are still around were hiding somewhere more secure than on a windblown leaf.

Actually, of the bugs I saw today, almost all of them were on the lawn chair. I looked there first when I went out to find bugs, and was surprised at my success there; it was not equaled elsewhere in the yard. I might as well have spared myself a very cold walk.

Amazingly, I found something new for today. Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This might be a springtail, which means that not only is it not a bug (i.e., a Hemiptera), it is not even an insect. I am not clear on the reason why springtails are not insects, but the scientific powers that be have determined that they are not an I take their word for it (even though I reject their decision that Pluto is not a planet. Though those would be different scientists). I could be wrong - there isn't a springtail in my book that looks like this except for an aquatic one, but I still think that might be what it is. I am trying to figure out a way to convey to you how tiny this thing is, but I can't, really. Maybe you can get an idea if I say that this is as close as I could get to it with my lens, and yet it is still tiny in the picture. Looking at the periods at the end of the sentences of this blog, I think that they might be bigger than this tiny creature. This was so small there is no way I would ever have seen it if it was not moving. And bright yellow on a blue surface.

See? Tiny. But believe me, it's still tinier than this makes it look. Actually, come to think of it, if you watch THIS VIDEO, my ladybug video, right around the 1:55 mark you can see something really, really tiny crawling around a little above and to the left of the ladybug. That might be one of these. You can compare it to the size of the ladybug and the aphids.

There aren't many Random Bugs today:

 Here is the one aphid I saw today. On the lawn chair.

 The wind blew open the top of the garden hose winder, and I saw a few things inside. There were several of these cocoons...

 And this, which I am guessing is also a cocoon of some kind.

 I think this is a bug?

 If it is, it is one I have never seen before. But since I am not 100% sure it's a bug, I couldn't make it Co-Bug of the Day. But it sure looks buggish.

 Hey, look who's still hanging around? Only one wasp today, on the usual flowers. I almost didn't bother to look, because I didn't think there would be anything there, but I did, and there was. Then I was sure it had to be dead, but it moved one of its legs very slowly, so it's not dead. Yet. This weather can't be all that comfortable for it.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Curled up on the lawn chair.