Third Time's the Charm

I was reading an article last night on the internet about bottled water sources, and it included a map showing which parts of the country are in a drought. The mildest drought condition shown on the map was "abnormally dry," and eastern Connecticut, where I live, was colored in for that. So I am not just imagining that we are not getting much rain this summer. However, when we got back from our trip last night, the rain gauge showed that we got over 5 inches of rain in the week we were gone. However, I think that all fell on one day. And that's not really enough to stop things like the early changing/falling of the leaves, and my perception that the dryness is leading to fewer bugs in the backyard.

But hey, I am no expert.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is a tiger bee fly. I have seen this kind of bug twice before today. Both times were in the middle of August. Both times it was on/near the mailbox post. Both times I did not have the appropriate camera to get a good picture of it (the first time I used my iPod. Yeah, that was a great shot).

I was actually wondering just yesterday if I was going to see one of these near the mailbox this year. (And hoping that if I did, I would have the right camera in my hand!) The first time I saw one I thought it was a moth, because of the way it flies, and because I didn't get close enough to really look at it. I read that it has an impressive proboscis, but I didn't get to see it. It is quite a large bug - the wingspan is easily an inch and a half (though the 'actual size' picture in my book was not nearly that big).

  The adult tiger bee fly feeds on flower nectar, but the larvae eat the larvae of carpenter bees. Which sort of explains why I keep seeing it near the mailbox; carpenter bees make a nest in the mailbox post every year.

 Also interesting in light of the sighting of the tiger bee fly today is that at the same time that the tiger bee fly was flitting about, this was going on at the opening of the carpenter bee nest. A wasp was preying on a carpenter bee. I didn't see the end of the encounter, but I don't think it ended well for the carpenter bee.

I didn't get a good picture of it, but you at least get the gist of what happened.

And speaking of Backyard Bugs of the Day we have seen before, here's another look at yesterday's BBotD:

I just thought they looked cute together, so I took another picture. The third one from yesterday is now on a different leaf (actually, they are all on different leaves than yesterday, because they appear to have eaten that one up!). I am intrigued by the spiky things sticking out of them.

Backyard Bud of the Day:

While buds are getting hard to find, seeds and seed pods and cones are all around:

 I love that there are still flowers blooming at the end of the stem.

Cone flowers are still the place to go if you want to see bugs:

A moth in the wild:

 It blends in very nice with that lighter piece of bark that is sticking out a little bit. I had to look closely to be sure it was a moth.

Can I get away with the weevil joke two days in a row?

No? Well, here's a weevil anyway. You can take it or weevil it.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Even though it's late in the season, it's not too late for bugs to lay eggs:

I think these two bugs were contemplating egg laying-related activities, because they were following each other around on this plant:

I don't know what these are, but they positively defy all attempts to get decent photographs.

A couple of caterpillars:

 To get a sense of how small this is, those are the whorls of my fingerprint you see.

 I found it crawling on the screen of my camera. I am glad I spotted it and didn't smoosh it with my face while looking through the eyepiece.

 I don't think this qualifies as an inchworm. More like a quarter-inch worm.

Random bugs:

 Very Art Deco.

 Blending in nicely.

Same here.

And now, Arachnid Appreciation!
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 This one and the next one were on the same plant, different leaves.