The Bugs in the Backyard: Portents

Red sky at night, sailor's delight, isn't that the deal?

Pink qualifies as red, right? So we're not going to have a nor'easter tomorrow? I know the meteorologists are adamant that we will, but they were wrong about today's forecast, which was for a sunny day. So why can't they be wrong about tomorrow?

Don't get me wrong - I like snow. And the first snowstorm of the year can be pretty special. But not when it messes up Thanksgiving. And hey, tomorrow is already a day off, so it's like wasting what could have been a snow day.

Anyway...

I realized that for all the times I have talked about the bugs that are swarming in the yard, those bugs have not been selected as Backyard Bug of the Day. Well, there was a different kind of bug that was swarming about a month ago, and those got to be Backyard Bug of the Day once, but the ones that have been swarming lately are different bugs (though it took me a while to realize that), and those have NOT been Backyard Bug of the Day.

Until now.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Quite dainty looking. The look like small craneflies, but I don't know what they are.

I have noticed something about this particular swarming species - they are almost always swarming at the base of trees. Sometimes they will be over a patch of fallen leaves, but mostly they are around the roots of trees.

I don't know what the swarming is all about, but I suspect evading predators has something to do with it.

Unless you see them land, it's hard to find them on the ground, and they never let me get very close before they take off again.

I talk to myself while I am walking around my backyard looking for bugs. I talk to the bugs, too. I don't expect them to answer, don't worry about my sanity, but I sometimes ask them to sit still, or land, or move where I can see them better. And when they are cooperative I often thank them for being so helpful. But when I talk to myself, it could be about anything. But today what I said to myself was "OH MY GOSH!"

Because I was so surprised to see this inching up a tree:

I did not expect to see a caterpillar today. I haven't seen a caterpillar in weeks, and even then it was case moth caterpillars, which seem to be more of an autumn caterpillar anyway. Everyone else I would think is already pupating or is holed up somewhere to hibernate (woolly bears, for instance, overwinter as caterpillars and pupate in the spring. I guess they can do that because they wear wool coats. Ba dum bum).

Then, later, I found this!

Another looper type caterpillar, but it looks like a different species - different body type and markings.

I thought it was dead for a while, because it didn't move at all when I was getting all up in its face.

But later I looked out the window and saw that it had moved. So I went back out to take more pictures.

And speaking of case moth caterpillars...

I found one of those today, too!

I haven't seen one of these in a while, either, though I have definitely seen them more recently than I have seen any loopers. You probably can't tell from the picture, but it's bigger than the ones I saw weeks ago - but still pretty tiny.

Today was a day for springtails, too:

It's a little hard to spot.

On the house.

I noticed a puddle of water on a rock, and since I saw a springtail scooting about on a puddle on a leaf recently I decided to check what I might find in this puddle, and there were several springtails zipping about on the water.

It's hard to tell here, but they got into a bit of a kerfuffle.

This is the nanosecond before they sprung away - in opposite directions.

Considering the things I found today, I am feeling quite rueful about what yesterday could have been, if it hadn't been raining all day. Today was about ten degrees cooler. And tomorrow... Well, let's just say that today is probably the last hurrah of the bug season (I know I have said that before, but if we get ten inches of snow, that will probably be it for bugs for a while).

Random Bugs:

Seeing these in a lot of places this week. On trees...

On the package bin... There weren't any on the lawn chairs today, though (there were no bugs on the lawn chairs. It was weird).

Tiny hoppers

Bright hoppers

Have you been noticing the difference in background color of the pictures lately? Not much green anymore, but sometimes the colors are pretty wild.

Woolly aphid

I think this is just a piece of a bug. I don't know why I keep finding pieces of bugs on moss...

Enormous fly. I thought it was a bee at first, which would have been shocking, but nope, just a huge fly.

It was a pretty good day for spotting spiders, so let's have some Arachnid Appreciation:
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Still hanging out under the rain gauge.

As you can see, this was a difficult spider to get a shot of. It was shy and aggressive. But also it was in a really awkward location. We have a dirt pile in our yard that is about as high as my hip, and there is a sapling growing on top of it. The spider was on the sapling, and a bit high for me to be able to get a picture, but it's not that easy to stand on the side of the dirt pile, because it's soft, and steep. So there I was, standing on this steep little hill in my gardening clogs that I wear out in the yard, and not only sliding back down the hill, but sliding out of my shoes.