Supercalli-spiderific-expialidocious

Bugs and their distant relations have been in the news lately. The distant relations I am talking about are ticks (I don't know if you'd really call them distant. They are in the same phylum; bugs/insects and arachnids are all arthropods. Make of that what you will). Every year around this time there will be an article in the newspaper declaring that it is going to be a bad year for ticks. It doesn't matter what kind of winter we just had, or what kind of spring we are having, or what kind of summer they think we are going to have, for some year every year is declared as going to be a bad year for ticks. Of course, what they mean by that is really that it is going to be a very good year for the ticks, and a bad year for people who don't want to be bitten by ticks (which is everyone, I presume). The rationale this year is that we had all that snow, and it insulated the ticks hiding in the ground (or on the ground, the article didn't make that clear) from freezing. But it also said that ticks have biological guards against freezing, so I don't see how that makes a difference. At any rate, this will be an extra bad year for people who don't want to be bitten by ticks, because scientists have found a new tick-borne disease for us to worry about and the new one is a virus, which means there is no cure for it, and it can kill you. Yay.

There were a couple of interesting articles about bees, too, mostly about threats against them, and the fact that it is not so much the domesticated honey bee we should be worried about, but the thousands of other species. They face several problems, including pesticides (okay, mostly pesticides) and apparently nicotine addiction, but one of the articles mentioned that a lack of food is another issue. Specifically, the problem is that there are too many areas without flowers. Too many paved places, and too many lawns. So, the article says we should all plant flowers, to save the bees. So go do it! This weekend! Plant some flowers in your yard, even if it's just a potted something on your porch. (And don't use pesticides) Save the bees! All of them!

Today was basically a perfect day in the backyard. Unless you happened to be a caterpillar. But more on that later. For me, the temperature was perfect, the day was sunny, and I found some gorgeous and interesting things.

The Backyard Bug of the Day was not the most interesting thing in the backyard today, but... wait, no, I just remembered something about the Backyard Bug of the Day that was pretty interesting. Carry on.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is a fourteen-spotted ladybug (but it should be called a checkered beetle, instead of the bug that IS called a checkered beetle, because this is checkered, and a beetle, whereas the nominal checkered beetle is a beetle, but not checkered. But I digress).

 Marching around on the chaise...

 Doing some wing flexing...

 Some... pushups?

 The bug was doing some grooming, and I spotted something interesting. Do you see that tiny speck to the left of the bug? More on that in a moment.

 I guessed correctly what this posture meant, but unfortunately mistimed my next shot, so I didn't get a picture of the ladybug flying away.

 Anyway, about that speck. This is that speck. This is a really, really, really, really, really tiny mite.

This is another one, ever so slightly less tiny. I think these two mites were removed from the ladybug during the grooming process. At least, that is how it appeared to me. It is possible that the mites just happened to walk by at that point, but it sure looked like during all that wing flexing, and stretching, and rubbing with legs that these two mites were expelled. Cool. But a tiny bit creepy. So, that is what was interesting about today's Backyard Bug of the Day.

I think this is the same kind of bee-or-wasp that was Backyard Bug of the Day a couple of days ago:

 I didn't get a close look at it, but it looks like it. On the other hand, there are thousands of species of bees and wasps in the world, so it could be something different that just looks similar.

 The plant it is on is a pussy willow bush.

Here's a zoomed-in look.

Random bugs:

 This ant is dragging a caterpillar. I saw another ant carrying an ant, and was impressed by that, until I saw this.

I think this is a caddisfly.

 Soon the crab apple trees will be blooming! Then the bees will be happy!

 I am keeping an eye on this - I am pretty sure that these are insect eggs of some kind, laid last fall. Which means either they all failed to hatch last year when they were supposed to, or they are hatching soon. I'll let you know what happens.

I found my first two photographic subjects today without even leaving the house - spiders on windows. In general this was a pretty spider-intensive day in the backyard. I found at least nine species, and possibly more, since I couldn't always tell if the jumping spiders were different species. And here I am going to warn you that if you are one of my mildly arachnophobic readers, today is a day for skipping the spider part of the blog - I'll leave a slightly longer buffer zone. If you are severely arachnophobic, leave now. Because some of these pictures will freak you out if pictures of spiders are a problem for you. If they are not a problem for you, scroll on, because there's awesomeness ahead.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This is what greeted me when I opened the shutters on my bedroom window when I got up today. Of course, in real life it's only about 1/4 inch wide, from leg tip to leg tip, so it was more cute than dramatic, like the picture.

 Then this was on the storm door as I was going outside. I got a lot of pictures of this spider, but I chose this one because of the fangs.

 Not so intimidating, is it?

 I saw a lot of jumping spiders today, and while at the beginning of the spider season I was seeing them all the time on the side of the house, now I am seeing a lot of them elsewhere in the yard, or in the wild, as I like to think of it (though there are still quite a number on the side of the house). Also, a lot of them have bugs in their grasp when I see them, so the hunting is going pretty well.

Okay, we're up to six species so far...

 This jumping spider has the most amazing chelicerae.

 Let's see those zoomed in... That is a caterpillar that it is clutching, by the way. Like I said, not a good day to be a caterpillar in the backyard today. Funny how except for the loopers I saw a few weeks ago, I have not seen any caterpillars so far this spring...

And now zoomed in more, and turned sideways so that it looks the right way 'round. Look at all the amazing colors of this spider!

Here's the full body view of that one. I like the gold heart on its abdomen.

Okay, so I only chose pictures of eight species, but trust me that there were at least nine.  Not too shabby for one day in the backyard!