Sorting

I spent the first part of my day finalizing my choices for pictures for the exhibit at the library and ordering the prints, which was a difficult process. After three years of doing this, I have a LOT of pictures of bugs. The number of pictures that are so amazing that I want to show them off in an exhibit is much smaller, but still. I sometimes have to have two Backyard Bugs of the Day just because I have difficulty making decisions. Then, when I was done, I went outside with my camera and had a horrible thought - what if I found something so amazing today that I just had to put it in the exhibit?! Well, I guess that's not really a horrible thought. And it didn't happen, so, whew! Dodged that problem!

Actually, compared to earlier in the week, there were very few bugs around today. It was weird - even the goldenrod was forsaken. And forget the milkweed. It has been abandoned for ages. I had to look hard to find things - and the things I found did not include the weird caterpillar (whose official name is not weird caterpillar, but smaller parasa moth caterpillar). Apparently, the weird caterpillar has moved on, or been eaten, or something. At any rate, I could not find it.

I almost didn't even bother to look at today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

I saw this pair of antennae sticking out from underneath this leaf (okay, not ALL the bugs have forsaken the milkweed), and thought it was funny, but didn't bother to look because I figured it was just another snowy tree cricket. But then, for some reason I took a peek and found...

 A snowy tree cricket!  But this one is an adult, so it has those cool wings. The other ones I have been seeing have been juveniles, and an insect in a different form can be BBotD again.

 This is a male - the male has these wide, rounded wings, and the female has narrower wings.

I looked this up in another of my bug books, and it, too, mentioned the connection between temperature and the snowy tree cricket's chirps, but it gave a different mathematical equation for determining the temperature: Count the number of chirps in 13 seconds and add 40 to get the approximate temperature in Fahrenheit. Then I read an excerpt from an old book on insects on the internet that went on at length about snowy tree crickets having a full orchestra. It waxed very poetic for a science book.

Aren't these wings gorgeous?

I spotted a younger snowy tree cricket today, too:

One of the things I read said there are two kinds of tree crickets, and one of them hangs out in trees and shrubs, while the other doesn't. Which still leaves the question of why it is called a tree cricket... Anyway, this one is hiding in a dead milkweed leaf.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Right now I am assuming everything is either goldenrod or asters. This looks more like asters.

When I went looking for the weird caterpillar, I found this instead on my hazelnut bush that is nearby:

 It actually does a pretty good job of masquerading as the edge of the leaf, turned brown, but I spotted it anyway. I was not pleased that it was eating my hazelnut bush's leaves, but I don't think this one caterpillar can do much damage. Speaking of damage, I hope those white things on its side are not parasites of some kind...

 The internet can't seem to agree on the species, but it is possibly a checkered fringe prominent moth caterpillar.

 I noticed its similarity to the tiny caterpillars on the nearby oak sapling. (By the way, I checked back to Tuesday's blog, and yes, these looked different a few days ago - the part that is brown now was green then). These could be the same kind. I prefer them on the oak tree rather than the hazelnut.

 Still coexisting peacefully. Two of them are even face to face.

 They really don't like those egg casings, though. Also I have to wonder about the fact that there are so many more eggs on the leaf than caterpillars. I did spot one a few days ago on another leaf, but not so many as these eggs would accommodate.

More caterpillars:

Here are the eggs from yesterday.

They have turned light brown, too. If you look closely you can see their texture - I'll try to get a closer picture tomorrow - I didn't realize they were interesting enough up close to be worth it.

Cocoon:

 On a cedar tree. No idea what's inside.

Pupating ladybug.

Just a few random bugs today:

 Ages ago I said that there were some bugs that eat bird droppings. I was not making that up. Yeesh, no wonder they call this a stinkbug.

 Leaf hopper.

 Katydid on the roof.

 Is it just me, or does this look a little bit like Godzilla?

Notice this ambush bug's wings developing.

Why are these flowers not swarming with bugs?

Believe it or not, I have only one spider today for Arachnid Appreciation:
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I think this is one that I haven't posted in the recent Spider Spectacular. I have lost count of how many species it's been in the last two weeks, but it has to be around 20.

It's really cold tonight - I wonder how many bugs I will find tomorrow?