Matchy Matchy

Today the blog is going to feature a color scheme because every bug that I found was either green, yellow, or brown. Some of them have accents of other colors, but there was definitely a theme going on in the backyard today. I don't know if they all called each other this morning, or what, but everyone went along with it.

I found a Backyard Bug of the Day pretty quickly after I went outside for my (first) bug walk, but I still had to use some patience to get the picture. I was walking around and saw a bug flying near me, and though it is very hard to get any kind of detail from a flying bug, it looked like it might be a yellow bug, and that intrigued me, so I watched it and followed it until it landed. I do this sometimes, but it is not often successful (especially where butterflies are concerned), because sometimes the bugs will land, but sometimes they will fly away where I can't follow. After three summers of photographing bugs I am getting a little better at knowing when not to bother to try for things, but this bug I had a feeling about, and it eventually landed somewhere where I could get a picture.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 It would appear from my book that this is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle, but I have to say that in showing up in the yard now it has missed its chance. They cucumbers in the garden are dead.

 A little weirdness happened at this point as I was taking pictures. I didn't see what happened as it happened, and am only piecing things together from the pictures, but it would seem that the bug didn't like it when I got close.

 It scooted around on the stick it was on, and left behind some yellow residue.

 This was right before it flew away.

 A few minutes later I either spotted a different one in a short ways away, or found the same one again.

And I spotted another when I went for a second bug walk after I got home from our afternoon adventures.

Note - the beetle is yellow.

Random Bugs:

 Brown (also, this pose is something of a theme today).

Green... wasp.

 Green with orange.

 Yellow with orange.

 This poor caterpillar has some wasp eggs on it now. It's doomed.

 Green with orange. Assassin bug

 Green - This is the best picture I have ever taken of a buffalo treehopper. It was in the sun, it sat still - perfect! This one is going in the calendar this year for sure!

Cool eye.

 Brown, and hiding very well against the brown blotch on this leaf.

 Brown with yellow and red. I was just thinking yesterday that I have not been seeing grasshoppers lately, and I should. And here's one now!

I must have taken at least 15 shots before I noticed the katydid about an inch away from the caterpillar I was focused on. Yes, I am very observant. Also, the katydid is green and brown.

 The katydid moved away before I could get a good picture to show how close these were.

That Tree is still THE place to be if you're a stinkbug. There are five that I can see here (brown and green).

Note what has happened at the bottom of the picture.

The green stinkbug above has excreted a rather large drop of honeydew... right onto the smaller, brown stinkbug. Sadly, stinkbugs don't drink honeydew as some other insects do.

 I have been going along for years thinking this yellow caterpillar is a Dagger Moth Caterpillar, but in one of my bug books there is one that looks just like this that is a Spotted Apatelodes Caterpillar, so now I don't know.

 I might be stretching it to say this sharpshooter is brown, but I am saying it anyway. It also has some yellow on it, so it counts.

 Yellow bumble bee. I know I posted a lot of these the other day, but sometimes you just shoot the fish in the barrel because you can.

 Brown... whatever this thing is. It's not an insect, but some sort of non-insect arthropod. It's creepy, whatever it is. And I just have to say, it stinks to be an aphid.

 I think this is a Twenty-spotted Lady Beetle. And it's light brown.

 Of course the Saddleback Caterpillar is green and brown. And it has been motionless on this leaf for over 24 hours. Getting ready to moult again? It has been on quite the eating spree lately.

 Some kind of looper - brown and yellow.

Green leaf hopper.

Even the spiders stuck to the color scheme. Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 A few yellow legs...

 This is the first of the two interesting spiders from the other day. It turns out it was still in the same spot, I just was looking in the wrong place yesterday.

 This is the underside of the spider. It is on the other side of the web.

 Here's the other side (brown). I love the way spiders try to hide under their own legs, as if that means I can't see their huge, exposed abdomen because they have covered their small cephalothorax.

 Brown and pale yellow

Do you have any idea how much I would LOVE to actually see a spider shedding its skin? To see it pulling its legs out of its former skin?

Yellow and brown.