So Many Things I Don't Know

The weather was nicer today (as in, not gloomy and raining. It was still grotesquely humid), but the bugs were still hard to find. I found them, though...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

This is a red milkweed beetle. Guess where I found it?

Backyard Bud of the Day:

These flowers are infinitesimal. I didn't even know there were flowers on this plant until I looked at it through the macro lens.

Backyard Bug Behavior:

 Not good pics for this story, but the story is worth telling. There are two kinds of Hemiptera (okay, I am simplifying, and an entomologist would disapprove, but go with me on this), those that feed on plants, and those that feed on other bugs. However, a lot of the plant eaters and bug eaters look very similar, so I can't really tell if a bug is a plant sucker or a bug sucker on sight. Or even after looking them up, often. So, I saw this bug on this flower, and wondered if it's an assassin or a plant sucker.

 Then this tiny beetle came along, and you can see what it did. I thought that it was a goner - if this was an assassin. It is certainly much bigger than the beetle! Well, the beetle kind of bumped into it...

 And the bigger bug fled!

Wimp.

The beetle definitely appears to be a plant eater:

And while we are on the subject of bug suckers (well, maybe we're not now, but we were):

 I may have inadvertently saved a skipper from this ambush bug by scaring it off the flower when I set down my monopod to take its picture. If I hadn't, I think this ambush bug would have grabbed it.

Backyard Bird of the Day:

This is a new one for me. And I am too lazy to look it up, because I know what will happen. I will go through my bird book and find about 7,497 birds that look vaguely like this.

Hatched egg:

Moth in the wild:

Only about half an inch long, if that. I love the spiky things sticking out the side, like a plume moth.

Something amazing:

This leaf/plant/whatever hopper just shed its skin! I missed the moment of shedding, but at least I saw it together with its discarded exoskeleton. Notice the still developing wings. Looks like it will be shedding again some time.

Random bug:

I felt like it was watching me...

If it's still hanging around tomorrow this caterpillar might be Backyard Bug of the Day:

I thought at first it was a gypsy moth caterpillar, because I can never remember what those look like, but it's not. I don't know what it is, but it's not a gypsy moth. Which is good, because gypsy moth caterpillars are dreadful. I still shudder when I think back on that major infestation we had back in the early 1980's.

*shudder*

Random plant:

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 These harvestmen seem to be of different species. I wonder if they prey on each other...

 I thought this spider was interesting for a couple of reasons. One is because it built this little silk canopy for itself - I thought at first it was a feather stuck in its web before I really looked at it.

 Another reason I thought it was interesting is because it essentially had two webs, this one, the typical orb weaver web...

... and behind it, but attached, a more random, every-which-way web. Unless these were webs belonging to two different spiders.