The Bugs in the Backyard: The Sun is a Lie

My husband and I have a longstanding fake argument about the sun, in which I insist that the sun has no bearing on the temperature of the earth. My evidence in this argument is all the sunny days in January that are freezing, while the cloudy days are warmer. His side of the argument is less scientific, and mostly just consists of thinking that I am silly. But perhaps, as Mr. Darcy accuses Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, I merely "...find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not [my] own." Anyway, in spite of a forecast that said that today would be much cooler than yesterday, I put on shorts when I got dressed this morning, because it was sunny outside, and warm in the house. Then I walked outside and said, "GAH!" It was cold out. Of course, it was the kind of cold that is only cold in September. If this was March it would be gorgeous. If this was January it would be downright hot. In either of those months it would be shorts weather. In September, not so much. At least, not until I acclimated to the temperature that was more than 10º colder than the day before. It was equally sunny, though, so come on, my argument has some merit...

I expected that the bugs would be scarce as a result of the chilliness, and they were, but I found some interesting things, including a bug that I don't think I have seen before, so it was still a good bug day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

This is a brown lacewing.

I posted a few pictures to you can see the iridescence of the wings.

And the awesome eye (though the ring is probably just a reflection from my flash).

Backyard Bud of the Day:

Some trees already have their buds for next year's leaves.

Random Bugs:

Moth in the wild.

Hoverfly.

It was a day for caterpillars:

This caterpillar has been sitting exactly like this for two days. I guess a new skin will be revealed soon!

I see these white hickory tussock moths sitting around a lot; I wish I would come upon one as it was building a cocoon.

I almost didn't see this one. It was in some deep shade, and really blended well with the twig it was on, though with the camera light it looks more obvious. And green. The first three pictures work for Blog-imation (that is the word I just made up for toggling between pictures to make them move in a primitive method of animation. I may need to come up with a better word).

It's a looper!

The saddleback caterpillar spent a couple of days sitting in one spot and not moving. Today it was on the same leaf, but in a different spot, and appears to have started eating again.

This is where it was for those days. That appears to be what is left from its moult, presumably it ate the rest of the skin? I hope it didn't eat the spines... I think I read somewhere back when I was looking up stuff about monarch caterpillars that that they anchor themselves to the leaf before moulting. This moult and the smaller parasa moth caterpillar's moult seem to have left behind a residue from something like that.

The spikes on the side have filled out.

I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow, but you can get a glimpse at least of the false eyes on its butt. I don't think it had those before the moult, but I could be wrong.

One of the praying mantises caught a bee.

See how it is holding its prey in its spiked arms?

Warning - the next picture is kind of... unsettling. Don't keep scrolling if you are squeamish about praying mantises.
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Are you still here? Okay.

I've zoomed in the picture to show the complicated (and nightmarish) mouth parts.

Click HERE to see a video of the praying mantis Eating the bee. But only if you can handle the ickiness of the fact that the bee appears to still be alive. However, it is not as gross as the video I took last year of a praying mantis eating a caterpillar (see it HERE).