Come Into the Light...

For a couple of nights last summer instead of having a Backyard Bug of the Day I had something called Porch Light Lepidoptera Lollapalooza. That's because there were so many different kinds of moths that were attracted to the porch light that there was no way to choose A bug. So I chose to just go with the abundance. (Lepidoptera, in case you're wondering, is the order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. Unfortunately my lepidoptera lollapalooza only has moths, because they're the ones that tend to be nocturnal and be attracted to the porch light. It would be so awesome if I could do it with butterflies!)

It was cool. To be funny I designed a t-shirt for the event.

Click Here to see that I really did design a t-shirt for it.

Can you guess where I'm going with this?

Last night we got in late again (we're party animals), and there were a plethora of lepidoptera on the porch, so I decided to do another Porch Light Lepidoptera Lollapalooza (that is the last time I am going to type that). Last week was Mother's Day, today is Moth's... Never mind.

Without any further ado, Backyard Bugs of the Day:

 I think this is the same species, different gender of the first one. I don't know if you can tell, but it's subtly purple.

 This one is slightly green, which you can see better later in the close-up.

 Hey, what does this one look like to you?

 Some of the moths were hanging out (or hiding) on the grapevine wreath on the wall.

 This one is also very slightly green.

Amazing variety, huh? And I didn't even get them all, just the ones close enough for me to reach.

Here's close-up views of a couple of them:

Huzzah for Porch Light Lepidoptera Lollapalooza! (Okay, so I did type it again).

It's a good thing I was able to get all my necessary bug pictures at 12:30 in the morning, because I was gone all afternoon and wasn't able to do a real bug walk. It was almost dark when I got home. I did get to find a couple more lepidoptera in larval form before the sunlight faded completely:

Obviously I know that you know that larval lepidoptera are caterpillars, so that is why I didn't explain that.



I got a Backyard Bud of the Day before dark, too (luckily I already knew where to find one):

I think it might be blackberry.

The Daily Dandelion is a bit comical today:

For our Arachnid Appreciation I will give you a gate-crasher from Porch Light Lepidoptera Lollapalooza (again!). There were a few of these spiders on the porch, too.
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I am not sure if the spiders are attracted by the lights or by all the bugs that are attracted by the lights... This one is not as big as it looks, so you don't have to be afraid of it.
 
And that's all for Porch Li- oh, you know.