Blue

Blue is my favorite color. It's not a color you see a whole lot in nature (daytime sky on a clear day notwithstanding), so I am happy when I find it.

Like today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

Such a gorgeous little bug!

The Backyard Bud of the day is pretty too. Or at least, the flowers with it are pretty. I like when I can get the bud with the flowers.

No idea what these are, but they are tiny and cute.

So, continuing the theme this week of the crabapple tree...

Yes, I know, you've seen this before. But if you look closely maybe you can see one of the thousands of bees surrounding it like a cloud? In the intervals when no one in the neighborhood is mowing their lawn, if you're standing under this tree it is the most prominent sound. Actually, you can even hear it when the whole neighborhood is mowing, just not as well. There were SO many bees attracted to the tree!

Unfortunately, most of them were not interested in cooperating to have their pictures taken.

Bees were not the only bugs attracted by the abundance of flowers. I think it's one of those other assumptions we make about what we think we know, but bees are definitely NOT the only bugs who pollinate.

Look! Another blue bug!

And now a gratuitous crabapple flower, just because I like the streaky colors of it (and of the leaf underneath):

I've got a couple more bugs to share today, that are interesting due to circumstances.

Hiding inside a furled leaf.

I think this is a leafhopper, or a plant hopper, from the insect order Hemiptera, which are known as the True Bugs. They are characterized in part by their mouth parts - a proboscis, which is a tube they use for sucking juices from plants (or other bugs). (Okay, I do know something about bugs). I think that is what we are seeing here - the proboscis stuck in the stem of this leaf, sucking out whatever it is that is in there for this bug to eat. I don't know that I have ever actually seen that before, or gotten a picture of it...

Okay, now for some arachnids... Today is definitely the day that if you are an arachnophobe you should not scroll further, because I am going to post a picture that will freak you out and give you bad dreams. I'll start with a milder one, that's more of the web than the spider you can barely see, but we're getting into some serious spider creepiness at the end here...

I've talked about the sounds of the day (buzzing bees), and the sights of the day (blue bugs!), and now for the smells of the day - or at least what I was breathing in that made me cut my walk short today - so, so, so much pollen. My eyes were itching like mad after a few minutes outside, and I had to give up and go in. But before I did, I saw this spiderweb covered in pollen...

Unfortunately, the picture doesn't really do it justice, but trust me, it was visibly green with a layer of pollen. The spider must have been annoyed - that cannot have been good for the web's bug catching properties.
Here's another shot that I have altered (weirdly) to maybe show it better?

Now for the creepiness. That is, if you find this kind of thing creepy. I think it's adorable. But if you are afraid of spiders, now is the time to stop reading for sure.

I found this little jumping spider with green eyes and green... whatever those things are. I can't remember what they're called.
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Anyway, I was messing around with zooming in on it, and clicked on "Show Actual Size." This is what the computer showed me as "actual size" of this spider:
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I assure you, the spider was not actually this big. My camera doesn't even let me get this close. Picture this as almost full screen on my laptop. I can even see the reflection of the ring flash of the camera in its eyes (and probably some of me, it's hard to tell). Are the whatever-you-call thems a gorgeous mix of blue and green? Did you know you can click on the pictures in this blog to see them bigger? Are you going to do that right now?

Ah, those eyes... Too bad they're not blue.