The Bugs in the Backyard: Three Hundred Fifty Degrees

I found almost the whole circle of life in the backyard today, in bug form (though not all from the same species).

First:

When they were on the leaf I didn't realize they were green!

I know these are horrible, but they were the best I could get, and I was just charmed by the color of these bugs.

Next:

Then - Today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

This is, I believe, a ladybug nymph.

This is a larger ladybug nymph (though I know you can't really tell from the pictures).

This, I am guessing, is some sort of intermediate phase of the ladybug? See, here's where I get confused. I have done some reading (but all on the internet, so its value and accuracy is debatable) and everything I have read says that nymphs are the young stage of bugs that don't go through a complete metamorphosis. Caterpillars go through complete metamorphosis to become moths and butterflies, but nymphs don't go through that stage where they cocoon and transform. It's more gradual, they grow and change at the same time, shedding their skin and coming out different (like with wings). But most of what I have read said that the nymph of these insects looks like a small version of the adult, and that is just not at all what I have observed. This ladybug nymph (and I have seen lots of sources identifying it as such) resembles an adult ladybug in color only. Other than that, it is nothing like a ladybug. In fact, most ladybug nymphs that I have seen are bigger than adult ladybugs. So how does that work? I have no idea. But this to me looks like something that is changing from that spiky, segmented thing into the round, smooth form of an adult ladybug.

Another view.

Aaaaand... here is an adult ladybug.

Have I ever mentioned how much ladybugs don't like having their picture taken?

Back to the adolescent phase of life (or maybe this would be childhood, and the pupation stage is adolescence?), here is the caterpillar from yesterday:

When I looked at it yesterday it was just sitting in the middle of a leaf, where a tiny bit of the edge had been nibbled. When I first saw it today, it was sitting in the same place, but a short time later it was eating the leaf.

About four hours later I came back, and that leaf was completely gone, and the caterpillar was on a different leaf. Now, this is the caterpillar on the new leaf. You can see the size of both the caterpillar and the leaf. The first leaf was about this same size. The inescapable conclusion is that the caterpillar at an entire leaf this size in four hours or so.

Maybe it IS a teenager.

I am going to have to keep an eye on this one.

One last adult for you:

Dragonfly - the first I have been able to photograph this year. I haven't seen as many as I am used to seeing.

The last bit of the circle of life I did not get any pictures of - I am not really into taking pictures of dead bugs (though lots of bug photographers only photograph dead bugs. They sit still). Coincidentally, I didn't get any pictures of spiders, either, so no Arachnid Appreciation today, either. Actually, the ladybug and the dragonfly are both insectivorious, so they could have presented some dead bugs to photograph but... let's just leave it here, almost all the way through an insect circle of life (is the title of this post suddenly making sense?).

Now for some plants - and hey, I've got various stages of life for them, too!

Backyard Bud of the Day: