Assassins, Invaders, Mysteries.

Hot, humid weather makes me miserable. I don't think the bugs like it much, either, or at least, that is my excuse for taking a very long nap when we got home this afternoon after being out since the morning, instead of going out to do my bug walk with the temperature in the 90's. It was into early evening by the time I decided it was cool enough to go out (and it was pretty hot in the house at that point, anyway, so I wasn't gaining much by staying in), and for a few minutes I thought I wasn't going to find any bugs - my penance for being lazy - but naturally, they were there. The coolest one I saw did not stick around for a picture, but I still found some interesting things.

Including... Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Remember the assassin bug from yesterday, with the black and white striped legs? I believe this is its nymph form. I have never seen one so tiny - probably not even 1/4 inch long.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

 I think this is called astilbe. Hummingbirds like it.

The top part looks like my house.

I found out that this is called a gall:

I think. It's the prettiest one I have ever seen. It is caused by some sort of parasite of the plant.

Speaking of those that damage plants...

 These are the caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly. So called because they lay their eggs on cabbage plants, and their caterpillars eat said plants.

 These are on my Brussels sprouts. Which are basically little cabbages.

 Bad caterpillar.

Random picture of a long legged fly:

Bonus Bug:

 When I found it, this gorgeous bug appeared to be eating bird poop.

Woolly aphid:

Woolly aphids are adorable when they are flying, but I guess you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Here's something we haven't had for a while - Daily Dandelion!

 Don't expect to see it again. After I took the picture I went over it with the lawn mower.

This is the smallest feather I have ever seen:

It was caught in a bush under one of the trees where the hummingbirds like to hang out, so maybe it belonged to one of them. I saw a hummingbird today that looked smaller than the ones I am used to seeing. A young one, perhaps?

I also found this:

This is one of my favorite things to find in the yard. Remember the BBotD a few days ago that was a leaf hopper with spines on it? This is a discarded exoskeleton from when one moulted. Not all bugs eat the skin they shed like caterpillars do. It's sort of like a bug's ghost.

Our little house guest is settling in well, and has eaten most of a leaf since it arrived. And created a lot of frass.

There's a bit of a puzzlement for Arachnid Appreciation, involving this same kind of leaf hopper as above:
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 This spider had a small web on this plant, where the spike leaf hopper was sitting on the stem. The leaf hopper was not caught in the web.

 The spider kept poking the leaf hopper with its legs. The leaf hopper never moved. I don't know if it had been envenomated by the spider, or just didn't care about it. It was bigger than the spider, but that is really not much of a barrier to spiders attacking things.

 The leaf hopper's antennae look like angry eyebrows.

You can see that the spider has other prey in its web.