The Sun Shines Again

Ah, sunshine!

I (without actual intention) did two bug walks today, and have a ton of pictures, so let's not waste time with words; each picture is worth a thousand of them.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Nymph of some sort of hopper. I know I have posted pictures of this before, but today it's Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Remember yesterday I said I wanted to see that caterpillar outside of its tent?

 Wow, it's like all I have to say is "I want this" and it happens... I want to win the lottery... Nope. Oh, right, I said I wanted to see a tortoise, too, and that didn't happen. But, the caterpillar was out and about today.

 It crawled down one trunk of the tree...

 And then back up the other trunk...

 It reached over to another branch (this is a young tree, the branches and trunk are quite slender)...

 Out onto a leaf...

Then I turned my camera on a different branch of the same tree for a few seconds to take this picture:

There are always ants on this branch, but not usually so many.

Anyway, in those seconds, during which I didn't even step away, I only moved the camera to face another branch, the caterpillar disappeared. Gone. Nowhere to be found. Not on the tree, not on the ground under the tree, nowhere. I even checked to see if I had inadvertently brushed up against its branch, as logistically impossible as that seemed, and it had climbed on me, but no, it didn't. It was just GONE. I went back later, and it was still not there. I cannot even begin to come up with an explanation for that, but I hope it is okay, that it had just dropped to the ground on purpose and scurried off into the underbrush nearby to pupate or something (some caterpillars pupate underground).

Still, it was weird, and a little unnerving...

Okay, where do we go from THERE?

Yesterday's Backyard Bug of the Day, suddenly being cooperative:

This plume moth landed on the same flower, and they got a bit feisty with each other. Kicking was involved.

Speaking of plume moths:

 There is this one milkweed plant, the same one yesterday's bug is on above, that is always loaded with plume moths (and in these two shots, the smoky moth from the other day).

In other moth news:

This moth spent the day in this position inside the closed window of my living room. I think this is a posture of looking for a mate. This moth is truly looking for love in the wrong place.

We went to the Connecticut Museum of Natural History at UConn today, primarily because when I went there years ago they had these huge drawers full of their insect specimen collection, and I wanted to look at them. Well, the museum has completely changed, and though they had some bugs on display, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. But I enjoyed this plaque:

Hmm... 2,300 species of moths and butterflies in Connecticut...

More of the eggs from yesterday:

I can't tell what the situation is here - are these unhatched eggs? Are these the eggs all these bugs hatched from? When the light goes through them, they don't seem to have anything inside, but they still appear to have lids on them. And what are those black things attached to them? It's confusing. But all the little bugs are still adorable. When you disturb them the run all over the leaf, but then they all come back to this huddle. Except that one.

Some more baby bugs:

Tiny katydid (I think).

Grasshopper.

Bee on balloon flower.

This poor bug...

It was still alive, and feisty. But it's not going to be flying anywhere.

Random bug:

Okay, that's all the bugs for today, how about some bunnies?

And some plants:

No idea.

I can't tell if this black eyed susan is deformed, of it it's been eaten into this shape, but I like it.

These buds are coming along nicely. I can't wait to see what the flowers look like.

Wild grapes.

Last but not least, a couple of cute spiders for Arachnid Appreciation:
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