Bluuuuuuuue

We took a cross country road trip a couple of years ago, me, my husband, and one of our nieces, and it was, for about a million reasons, a truly phenomenal experience. We saw so many beautiful, and interesting, and wonderful things, and so many things that were really unexpected. One of the things that was unexpected was how brown certain parts of the country are. This was before the current drought, so it was not because of that, though there could certainly have been a drought going on there, I don't know. But I think these were places that are just naturally brown. Like Nevada. Specifically, the dessert we drove through on our way back. The thing is, the place I live is green. Obviously not so much in the winter - thought there are evergreens here, both trees and shrubs, but green is still the predominant color I think of when I think of my home. I found that after a few days of brownness, my eyes were aching for green, hungering for it. So when we got to Nebraska, which has a reputation for being rather dull to drive through because you see nothing but corn for miles and miles on end, I loved it, because all of that corn was so GREEN.

Right now my eyes are aching for blue, specifically, the blue of the sky. It was supposed to clear up today, and didn't, so I am desperate for tomorrow to be as sunny as the forecast says, and if it is, I will drink in that blue tomorrow like I am dying of thirst.

It would be nice also to be able to take pictures without having to use the light on my camera. Natural light always looks the best.

I feel very hopeful these days when I go outside and hear a lot of crickets, because rightly or wrongly, I associate a lot of cricket noise with an ease in finding bugs (though, ironically, I seldom find crickets, no matter how many I can hear). There were a fair number of crickets sounding today, and I had a decent time of finding bugs, so I guess it held true today.

I also found this:

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it found me, because I looked up and saw it staring at me. Actually, I should say they were staring at me - there are two deer in this picture.

It is never easy finding a Backyard Bug of the Day these days, though. When I went outside today I went straight for the lawn chairs, because they have been a pretty good source for bugs lately, but there were only a few aphids there. I guess the aphid parade is over, and all that is left are some stragglers (the ones that clean up after the horses, I guess). So, I had to look elsewhere. And, for the usual reasons, I have chosen two.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 A cranefly. A smallish one.

 The pictures aren't great because it wouldn't stop moving.

This one is zoomed in to show the beautiful wing pattern.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 I think this is a sawfly.

 And that is an ovipositor. At least, I hope this is a sawfly with an ovipositor, and not a wasp with a sting, because that would be frightening.

Now, brace yourself for a LOT of pictures of my latest insect fascination - the Rove Beetle:

 Yes, I finally looked it up - this is a Rove Beetle. Notable for its short elytra, under which it tucks full-sized wings. Most impressive, but then it's probably obvious that I think that. Here's what else the book* has to say about Rove Beetles: "You should not expect to be able to identify most rove beetles to species." That particular book shows about a dozen or so species, another book shows three, and the other book doesn't show any at all. Meanwhile, there are over 4,000 species of rove beetles in North America. So. All I can tell you is that this is a rove beetle, but hey, that's more than we both knew before, so we've learned something today, which is always my ideal. Anyway, about this picture - when I came across this beetle it had its wings sticking out like this. I guess they don't always fold up so nicely under those short elytra.

 It's hard to tell, except for the foreshortening, but here the beetle has flexed its abdomen up to push the wings under better.

 It's an improvement...

 And then, out come the wings!

Just starting to fold them...

 Up comes the abdomen to tuck them away...

 ... Aaaaand they are sticking out on the other side this time.

 Then they came out again...

See the raised front legs? This is just before it flew away.

Random Bugs:

 This fluttered past me and landed on this leaf, and at first I thought it was a moth, but when I looked closely I saw that it was a case moth caterpillar, so when it fluttered past me it was just being carried by the wind. I guess it's a little preview for the caterpillar of what it will be like to be a moth.

I haven't seen many moths lately...

 I saw A LOT of these today. During the two minutes when the sun was out(ish) they were even swarming like they do on warm days.

 Another one of my hypotheses blown out of the water - it was only in the 50s today, and I saw several Hemiptera, like this immature tree hopper, so I guess they don't need temps in the 60s.

 Very mangled stinkbug.

Buffalo tree hopper. I haven't seen one of these in weeks.

I am really starting to like aphids. They look so cartoony.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Vegetarian? (Kidding. I know that there are no vegetarian spiders. Except for one tropical species, and this is not it).


*Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America - Eric R. Eaton and Kenn Kaufman