Technicolor

June 28, 2014

I need an intro...

Nope. I've got nothing. Nothing but bugs.

I have 2 Backyard Bugs of the Day today, for the simple reason that... well, you'll see.

Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day:

Now, at first you are probably only seeing one bug here, and it's a pretty eye-catching bug. Another leaf-hopper, or plant-hopper, or tree-hopper... One of those. A Hemiptera, or true bug. But do you see the other bug? You don't have the benefit I had, which is that it moved, but I think you can see the legs pretty easily.

Or how about now? There is quite the plethora of woolly bugs in the backyard lately. In the last three days I have seen three different kinds. I wonder if this bug is in any way responsible for the rest of the fuzz all over this stem...

While we're on the subject of bugs sharing space:

It always amazes me that with all of the leaves in the yard, in the world, two bugs who are different, but are not trying to eat each other, end up hanging out on the same leaf. I wonder what they think about each other...

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Pokeweed.

I had quite a few frustrating moments today, of pictures I was trying to get but couldn't. I am going to post my attempts, though, because the colors of the bugs in question were so amazing, and you can at least see that in my blurry shots. All three of these pictures are zoomed in, because I just couldn't get close to either of these bugs (and one of them didn't even land anywhere. I know there are people who somehow get amazing pictures of bugs in flight, but I have no idea how they do it).

First, blue:

 Zoomed in this one isn't so bad, but it really doesn't do the blue color justice. When I saw this flying around, it was really something to see.

 However, it was not one to sit still, and thus very hard to focus on.

 And this red one never even landed. I don't think this picture shows the color very well -it wasn't so orangey red, it really was a bright, true red. And in this picture the wings look like helicopter blades, which is pretty cool.

Some day I am going to try to get a whole rainbow of bug colors in one day...

Usually when I find bug eggs I have no idea what kind of bug laid them...

But sometimes it's obvious.

Bees have a reputation for being busy all the time...

It's not entirely warranted.

Dragonflies have pleasant faces:

Here's a random Bonus Bug for you:

And it's good to know that there will be more candy striped leaf hoppers around in the future:

If I were to guess, I would say the larger one was the female. And to think, all this time I assumed that there were smaller ones around because they were immatures.

You see a lot of really awesome photos of bugs on the internet that are so awesome because the person taking the picture was taking it of a dead bug. In a lot of ways dead bugs are much easier to photograph (I wish there was a shorter verb for that...), so you get really good pictures. Not so much in this case...

Yes, this is a mosquito. Cause of death: it tried to bite me. I am not actually sure if it was dead at this point, because it was still moving a bit, but that could just be nerve endings or something. Don't expect to see a mosquito as BBotD.

Rounding out the bug portion of the program today...

Firefly. I asked nicely, but it would light up for the picture.

It's getting close to one of the best times of the summer...

 Raspberry season!

So close...

Now, in honor of my wedding anniversary tomorrow (which, to be honest, as I write this, is today), some romantic honeysuckle flowers:

And now, a spiderless Arachnid Appreciation:
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 A couple of different species of harvestmen/daddy longlegs. I still don't know what the red things are on the legs, but this one's got a bad case of it.