The Dark Side

Today we have a Bugs in the Night edition of The Bugs in the Backyard. All of the bug pictures in today's blog were taken after dark, some of them when I got home last night just after midnight, and some of them tonight when it finally stopped raining sometime after the sun set.

I didn't have to do a bug walk this evening, though I didn't get a lot of pictures last night. I could have just had a really short blog (which this will be anyway). But I took this picture last night:

This is a weird looking bug that I have never seen before. Naturally, my assumption is that it is nocturnal. It got me thinking that there might be other bugs that are nocturnal, that I have never seen. Yes, I sometimes go out at night to check on the spiders, and sometimes I spot other bugs when I do that, but I have never made a full survey like I do during the day. So, I decided to do that tonight, since I didn't get to do a bug walk during the day, and since it was a pleasant, balmy evening.

I did find this bug that I have not seen during the day, and it is Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I have no idea what this is. It looks sort of moth-like but not really. It has some sort of appendages in the front that I cannot identify, that are definitely not moth-like. I looked through one of my bug books to try to find it, but I didn't. I didn't even know what part of the book to look in, so I had to look through almost all of it.

To solidify the notion that this is a nocturnal bug, I actually saw another one, this time on the trunk of a tree. Unfortunately, it was too high up for me to get a good shot.

So I learned that yes, there are bugs in the backyard that are only out at night. I know, of course, that I am making this statement on the basis of a laughably small amount of evidence. Now you know why I am not a scientist. I leap to conclusions.

I also learned that it is really hard to find bugs in the dark, especially when the batteries on your flash are dying. It's also kind of unpleasant when everything is wet and you know there are slugs everywhere.

I don't have a lot of random bugs, but here's what I found:

 Earwigs are even creepier in the dark.

 This tree cricket's wings were kind of deformed. I couldn't tell from the wings if it was a male or a female, but it looked like it had an ovipositor.

 This one is definitely female. She looks like she is ready to lay eggs. This picture was from late last night.

Here we have some cool Backyard Bug Behavior:

 This female tree cricket is laying eggs. She has her ovipositor stuck inside the small branch of this tree.

One thing you find a lot of after dark is spiders (another reason to be afraid of the dark if you are an arachnophobe). Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I think this is a Six-spotted Orb Weaver. It's quite small.

 This spider was building a web in a spot where another spider's web used to be (the one that kept getting leaves caught in it). I have to wonder about that...

 Here's another shot of the same spider, trying to be unobtrusive.

 I know I post a lot of these Shamrock Orb Weavers, but they're beautiful! Last night there were several of them out on their webs, but tonight this was the only one. The one that I can spot in the daytime seems to be gone from its bower.