Powers of Observation

Maybe it was the humidity, but I just was not inspired when I went for my bug walk today. I found bugs, and I even found a really nice one to be Backyard Bug of the Day, but it is a bug I have seen a few times before, and got better pictures of than I did today, so mostly when I was done taking pictures of it I was just annoyed that a) it wouldn't stop moving and b) I got very dirty because I had to lie down on the ground to take the pictures.

Don't mind me, humidity makes me grumpy.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 According to what I can figure out from my bug book, this is possibly a cuckoo wasp, which is a family of wasps that parasitize the nests of other wasps and bees. Interestingly, they don't have a sting. My book shows several species, and they all look pretty much the same to me, so we're just going to have to go with cuckoo wasp. From an aesthetic standpoint, this is one of my favorite bugs. It looks like it is encrusted with sapphires and emeralds.

 I can really impress you with my observational skills when I tell you that I took over 40 pictures of this particular wasp and didn't notice until I looked at the pictures on my computer that it is missing a wing. I was too intent on crawling around in the dirt, trying to keep the bug in focus as it moved around really fast to actually look at it. Ironically, I did wonder why it wasn't flying.

 Zoomed in photo, because I think it's cute when bugs clean their faces with their front legs.

I did notice something interesting about its behavior, though it is not something I have an explanation for. The wasp would stop walking periodically and rub its back end on the ground. It also rubbed its back end with its wing (you would think I would notice the fact that it only had one wing when I was actually noticing what it was doing with its wing, but no) and with its back legs.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Not a good picture, but I gave up in frustration. Between the wind, and the awkward location of this plant, I couldn't deal.

Did I mention it was really humid today?

Caterpillars are becoming a theme of this month. My backyard might be the Land of a Billion Caterpillars:

 I got a quick glimpse of the underside of one of the smaller parasa moth caterpillars.

 Yeah, it's still weird.

 These are looking even more like the checkered fringe prominent moth caterpillar. There's only two on this leaf now.

 Today was the day for getting a look at the underside of caterpillars, apparently.

So very many random bugs today:

 Exoskeletons

 The prettiest stinkbug

 I think this is a squash bug, but that is not squash it is eating.

 It is very unusual for me to see an ambush bug anywhere other than on goldenrod, or hidden in some other flower.

 This assassin bug was being unusually cooperative, so I took this picture just to see how close it would let me get with the camera. This close.

 What happened here?!

You could have been Backyard Bug of the Day if you had just cooperated with me...

The weather forecast for this coming week said that it was going to be like July. I don't even want to hear that in July, because to me, July has the second worst weather of all the months (January, to answer your uspoken question). However, the plants in my yard know that fall is coming:

 Sasafrass berries

More asters. I promise I am not going to post pictures of asters every day.

And now... Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 I spotted two of these spiders today, in little tents of silk. Very tight tents of silk.

 Daddy-long-legs with a parasite - or two, at least, because it looks like there one on one of the front legs. It looks like the same kind the leafhopper had yesterday. I saw a scorpionfly with a couple on it today, too, but didn't get a picture.

 This is the builder of the huge web across the path last night. The web was gone when I went out today, and I have not gone out to look tonight because it's been raining (YAY!).

Trust me, this is a spider.

Using the Proper Tools

I don't have a Bucket List of places I'd like to go, or experiences I'd like to have in my life, but I do have a wish list of bugs I'd like to find in my yard and get a picture of. A Bug-et list, you might say. It's not really even a list, and it doesn't consist of a lot of bugs - the biggest one I saw this year, the luna moth. I'd like to see a stick bug, now that I know they exist in Connecticut (I thought they were more of a tropical thing). Today's Backyard Bug of the Day was on my Bug-et list - until today, when I was finally able to get pictures of it.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Hmmm... This might not be a good job for the macro lens - the bug is a big one, but it's about 12 feet up on a tree, and there's about an 8 foot thorny barrier around the tree... Time for the telephoto lens!

 Cicada! This is an annual cicada. I hear them in the summer, but this is only the third time I have seen one in the yard in 15 years, and the other two times were only fleeting glimpses. Figures that even today I couldn't get a close up look. So, why is it so hard to catch a glimpse of a bug that is over two inches long? Because cicadas spend most of their lives underground (from one to 17 years, depending on the species), and only come out for a brief time to make noise and mate, and they spend most of that time in trees. I was bummed last year when I found out that we would not have the 17 year cicadas in our area, but at least we get annual cicadas.

 Since even the telephoto lens was not powerful to get a good look at this, I have zoomed in a couple of pictures.

If this had been the only bug I saw today I would still have considered it a good bug day.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Wild lettuce

Backyard Bug Behavior:

 Practically the first thing I saw when I went outside today was this landing at my feet. I could see that the wasp was carrying something that was big - as big as the wasp, anyway.

 This is what it had. After it landed with this bug, the wasp flew away. I know there are predatory wasps, and parasitic wasps. I don't know what this was.

Here are the moth eggs on the deer netting:

There are (were) three places on the deer netting where there were these eggs, all from different nights. The oldest ones are mostly gone, and the area has slug slime on it, so it looks like maybe a slug ate them. When I was outside this evening there was a slug on the deer netting, so it's definitely possible. For more on what may have happened to the moth eggs, you'll have to wait for Arachnid Appreciation.

Guess who I spotted again today?

 It had company, too. There were two more of the same kind of caterpillar on other branches of the tree. They were both smaller and darker colored.

Although this one doesn't look darker in this picture, trust me it was.

The possible checkered prominent was still working on its hazelnut leaf:

 I am posting this picture so you can get a better idea of how well it is camouflaged, even though it's easy to find in the picture because it is in focus.

These next two pictures are something of a time lapse...

 

There's more caterpillar than leaf here!

 When it finished that leaf it moved on...

It tried out several leaves before settling on this one.

Moths in the wild:

Finally, someone appreciates the little, pink flowers in the "garden."

Also in bloom: Asters

Random Bugs:

 I wish I had seen this bug from the front. I would have liked to see that face.

 Here's an extra-zoomed in look at the eye.

 A young assassin, blending in.

 This leaf hopper looks like it has a parasite.

 Sigh.

Snowy tree cricket after dark

Now for the resolution of the moth egg story - Arachnid Appreciation.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Let's just say I don't think the moth who laid the eggs appreciates arachnids:

 This spider was crawling around on the eggs during the day. I didn't see it actually eat any, but...

These next two spiders were on the eggs when I went out at around 11 at night.

It is amazing the number of orb weaver spiders that are building huge webs in the backyard every night. There have been orb weavers in the backyard other summers, but never so many - one or two at any given time at the most. I have lost count of how many are out there now. And the thing that is most amazing to me is that they build their webs in close proximity to each other in some places.

I spotted this one in the afternoon (it's rare to even get this much of a glimpse of one during the day):

It is hiding in its leaf tent. Look closely and you can see that not only does it have a leg on one of the threads of the web, but it is pulling it taut - you can see the slack.

This one was building its web at night in the worst place - across the intersection of two paths. Even if my husband or I don't walk through it, there are other animals that use the paths. A bunny might be small enough not to walk into it, but a deer would definitely break it. It's an impressive web, though - the spiral part is probably almost two feet across, and the anchor threads span over ten feet.

How can anyone not appreciate a pink and yellow spider?

Well, besides the bug it is eating.