Day and Night

Last night I was standing on the porch at 2 a.m., looking at the sky, and I could only hear one cricket. Most nights it's a cacophony, with crickets, and tree frogs, and who knows what else, but last night, there was just one lonely (and that's why they sing) cricket making up the entire soundtrack of the night. It was 46.8ºF outside. This evening I was out again, at around 10 p.m., I think, maybe 9:30, and it was 48.0ºF, and though it was subdued, there were definitely a lot more critters calling than there were last night. So, I guess somewhere between 46.8º and 48.0º is when most of the bugs and frogs decide it's too cold to sing. Given the temperature at 10:00, it looks like it's going to be pretty chilly tonight.

The reason I was outside tonight was to look for bugs, because I was testing my hypothesis (or whatever this is) that there are more bugs in that one sapling at night than during the day. Now, I don't think that it is easier to find bugs in the tree at night - they are certainly easier to see during the day. But once again there were no bugs there in the afternoon, and there were several there after dark. So what does this mean? Probably absolutely nothing, but if you want to find bugs, and I often do, it's the kind of information that is very useful.

However, it was during my afternoon bug walk that I found Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This was the first non-spider that I found when I went outside today. At first I thought it was a bee, but when I got a better look I decided it was probably a fly (some kind of tachinid fly, is my guess from checking my books, though I couldn't find one exactly like this). It's a pretty interesting fly, because it's huge - bee-sized, red, and kind of looks like a pig from a distance. So let's zoom this picture in!

 Not so piggish, or even bee-ish, but still weird.

I didn't have a lot of time for a bug walk this afternoon, and the bugs were scarce, but I found a few:

 I had the wrong settings on the camera, but you get the idea of what this leaf hopper (I think it's a nymph) looks like. A ghost.

 Another cooperative sharpshooter!

 Zooming in like crazy...

 Look at that adorable face!

And that was pretty much it... for the daytime. There were a couple more leaf hoppers, some weevils I got blurry pictures of, and a few other uncooperative bugs, but that's all. Not a bug bonanza. (By the way, one thing that was revealed by the light of day was the amount of rain we got yesterday - more than 1/4 inch! We actually got closer to 3/8 inch!).

Then I went out in the dark of night...

 Moth in the wild.

Okay, here's what I found on the little tree:

 Bad picture, but there's a leaf hopper in there.

 Another bad picture of another leaf hopper.

Another moth in the wild. This was on a different tree.

And so was this.

 Camo caterpillar is still hanging out on its flower.

 Aphids.

A tree cricket on a tree!

The really good stuff tonight was the spiders, but I found some during the day, too, so there's quite a lot to appreciate in Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Yeah, I pretty much just liked this for the dramatic, ominous shadow.

 This was not taken at night, but during the day, in the shade. It's a horrible picture, but I really wanted to show this spider because I have never seen one dangling in that position before. It looks like a squid. It's amazing, really, how every kind of spider has its own idea of what is the best position to both go unnoticed and be ready to grab whatever prey happens by.

 This one was taken at night.

 Orb weaver #1 has gotten pretty huge. I mean, we're not talking Shelob here, but this is a pretty big spider. Seriously, even I would squish this if I saw it inside my house.

 Orb weaver #4 is pretty impressive, too.

 I happened to look up into a taller tree while I was outside, because I thought maybe I could spot a tree cricket, and I saw this spider building a web. This one I actually know - a marble orb weaver. I was psyched to see it, because it's one I haven't seen this summer, and because I actually know the name of it, which I am sure you have noticed is a pretty rare circumstance. It's not a very big one, but it has time to grow.

 

 Remember that itsy bitsy spider with the neon orange belly? This is what it looks like in the nigh with my light on it.

 This is not a spider, but I am putting it in this section for two reasons: 1) It's in a spider web, and 2) It's creepy and gross. I normally don't take pictures of slugs. I normally don't even look at them if I can help it, but this one was crawling on a spider web that was under construction (very slowly. The cold seems to have made the spider sluggish. It wasn't as smart as the other spiders, who all built their webs early tonight). It just kind of boggles my mind that a slug can crawl along a spider thread.

There are two spiders in this picture...