Defying the Odds

Fun fact: Statistically, October is the sunniest month in Connecticut. Not so fun reality: Statistics don't actually mean anything when it comes to weather. For example, I read somewhere that the average temperature in Connecticut is 40-something degrees (I don't remember the actual number). That may be true, that if you average the high temperature of every day in Connecticut you get a number somewhere in the 40s, but it is terribly misleading. There aren't a lot of days in the 40s overall - it's usually much warmer or much colder. Still, you'd think that October being the sunniest month would mean something. Like, sunshine, specifically. I think this particular October we are making up for all the rain we didn't get over the summer, so the sun has not had much of a chance to shine. It certainly didn't today. Cold and wet combined is my least favorite kind of weather. The thunder this evening was pretty impressive, though.

It was quiet in the yard today, as far as animal sounds go. The wind was roaring, but the birds weren't singing, and I could only hear one distant cricket.

As you have probably guessed, I didn't see a lot of bugs today. In fact, for a while I didn't think I was going to see any at all. And after doing a tour of the whole yard (the parts I normally tour, anyway), I figured I wasn't going to find a Backyard Bug of the Day for today. But I happened to walk past the lawn chairs, and decided to check it the aphids were still parading along there (they are, but there are not as many as there were), and I found a Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is some sort of Coleoptera (beetle) larva. It's a different color and shape than the one that was BBotD a few days ago, so it qualifies to be BBotD, because it's a different species. It also has a bunch of stuff stuck to it. I have never heard of beetle larvae sticking stuff to themselves as camouflage, but there are caterpillars that do it, as I've shown before, so why not? Also, this one has caught a smaller bug to eat.

Here's a zoomed-in look at that face.

 Aphids give no respect to anyone, even predators that could eat them.

The prey is a cute bug. I wonder why the larva was just holding onto it, and not eating it. They don't suck their prey like assassin bugs do, the just eat it normally, and I don't think they use venom, so it's not like it has to wait for that to take effect. But the whole time I was looking at it it just held onto that bug.

Backyard Birds of the Day:

Migrating geese. I heard them before I saw them. I know it's a terrible picture, but I didn't have time to adjust the camera better. You still get the idea - Geese flying... west, actually. After all the birds that have been in the yard the last couple of days, today there weren't many around. I don't know if that's because the migrators have moved on, or because they were all hunkered down out of the weather. I was only able to go out and do my bug walk because there was a lull in the rain.

Here's what the bugs thought of the weather today:

 There weren't as many of these bugs to be seen today, and they definitely were not swarming as they have been the last couple of days. This one was sitting out on a leaf, like I normally see them...

 ... but some of the others looked like they wanted to hide from the rain.

I realized I was wrong when I said that Hemiptera only come out when the temperature is in the 60s, because I have actually seen assassin bugs every day. I spotted two today:

 Just sitting around...

 Doing that fold-up-your-legs-like-an-umbrella-and-hide-under-them self defense thing.

 This one is doing it, too. The color and shape are a little different on this one.

Random Bugs:

 Well, the ants didn't mind the weather...

 This is how an insect tells you, "We're done here."

 A gall on an oak leaf whose occupant has emerged.

 Some of the trees are holding out, refusing to change colors.

I just realized I didn't see any spiders today, so there are no arachnids to appreciate. I guess you'll just have to go down to your basement and look in the corners to find some of your own.