Light and Shadow

I am getting a late start on writing, because tonight was my dancing night, and I didn't get myself all organized before I went out. So I think I'll do that thing where I load pictures simultaneously with sorting through them.

Ironically, I got a very early start on taking pictures for today, because I went out late last night (in other words, after midnight, so, today) to check up on the spiders, and took a bunch of other pictures, too. I'll leave the spiders for the end, but will be starting with last night's pictures in the dark.

 The dagger moth caterpillar has dried out. Caterpillars will eat all night if they are in an eating phase.

 Buffalo tree hopper. I'd like to take a moment to say that my ring flash is awesome. I use it as a spotlight more than as a flash, and it allows me to take pictures of bugs when it is completely dark outside. It is amazing! It also works well to light my way walking around the yard.

 Two bugs on this leaf - assassin, and tree cricket. If I was the tree cricket I would make haste elsewhere...

 This is the first think I saw when I opened the curtains to let the sun in this morning. Not a bug. Look, I caught a leaf in the act of falling!

 There were a lot of busy, active bees today. It wasn't much warmer than it has been, maybe two degrees, but instead of just a bunch of torporific bumblebees, there were lots of species, and they were energetic (which made them hard to get pictures of). I was just taking some shots of this cute, little bee when...

 This one basically landed right on top of it. The little bee flew away right quick.

And then so did the bumblebee.

There was one aster plant where I spotted five different species of bees all at once, but not in a place where I could get a picture, alas.

 Scorpionfly

 Another Buffalo Treehopper

 A lethargic wasp. 

 And kind of clumsy.

 Sharpshooter.

 Firefly. This firefly was on the same fern as the sharpshooter above. It was a popular plant: the sharpshooter, and firefly, a cranefly, and two spiders were all hanging out on the same plant.

Taking this picture made me happy. What's so noteworthy about this assassin bug, you may be wondering? Nothing. But what else do we see in the picture? A shadow! And what do you need to have a shadow? Light! And what kind of light made this shadow? SUNLIGHT!!! Today was sunny. It made me really happy. It didn't make it warm out (naturally), but it was bright and beautiful, and buggy.

Speaking of buggy, I will finally reveal today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 No idea what it is - some kind of beetle?

 It's very shiny. A lot of bugs are very textured when you look at them really close, but this one is pretty smooth.

 I was surprised that this squirrel buried a nut while I was standing there watching. It probably moved it after I walked away (they do that).

 Brown Hooded Owlet Moth Caterpillar feet.

Some Sort of Prominent Caterpillar with parasites.

I am skipping a lot of bugs because I got so many today... I do want to finish eventually and go to bed...

 Funny story about this adult male tree cricket. Just as I spotted it, it was casually climbing over the edge from the top to the bottom of a leaf... and about a second later it came zooming out again and hastily moved to another leaf, and I saw a couple of antennae wiggling from underneath the leaf.

 I flipped over the leaf, and there was this adult male tree cricket. Apparently there was not room under there for the both of them.

 Tiny looper.

 The ambush bug blends in amazingly well.

 I think this is called tick weed.

 For five days, since Monday, this Saddleback caterpillar has not moved. I check up on it every day, because its motionlessness means it's getting ready to do something. This is what it looked like this afternoon...

 And this is what happened at some point after I walked away. On a whim I checked it out again when we were going out for the evening, and found that it had, indeed, moulted. I don't know if you can tell, but it has also turned around to face the other direction.

 Tiny, green/gold wasp (or bee? I didn't get a good look).

The porch light was on for less than a minute before it attracted this moth.

So, a good bug day! Especially when you consider I didn't even show you all of the bugs I found.

It was a good spider day, too, if you like spiders. Much to appreciate in Arachnid Appreciation:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The reason I went out to check on the orb weavers last night is because I have not been seeing new webs each day, so I wondered if they were still around. There is only one I can spot during the day, because its bower is the only one in a place I can see into it. Of the various spiders I have been observing, two were not there last night. The rest were very sluggish, and none built new webs. They were all just hanging out on the tattered remnants of webs from days ago.

 The colors are darker and the patterns more pronounced on all of them. The pinkish red one is one of the ones that are gone, and the others are a darker brown than they were.

 This spider tries to make itself as narrow as possible when it feels threatened.

 Here it is feeling more relaxed.

 You can just spy the spider peeking around its prey.

 This was an exciting find - a spider I have never seen before! It was tiny - about the size of a small ant, and when I saw it, even through the camera, I thought it was a tiny spider pulling another bug of equal size. I didn't get a good look, because it was moving fast, and scooted out of sight. Then when I looked at the shots on the computer, I saw that it was just a spider, no prey, but it has an elongated body.

 Here's the picture zoomed in. I get so excited when I find a species of spider I have never seen before!