Answers Beget More Questions

The virtue of diligently observing the state of the backyard every day is that occasionally questions are answered for me without me having to look things up. Of course, there are constantly more questions presenting themselves, but at least once in a while I will find out what I want to know just by continuing to observe what's going on in the backyard.

For example, take today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I am pretty sure I posted a picture of this sometime last week, under the category of weird things. At least I have been seeing this thing for about a week, and wondering what it is. At first glance it just looks like bird poop on a leaf, but I didn't think that's what it really was. My guess was that it was a cocoon of some kind. It definitely seemed weird to me. And it got weirder when I noticed yesterday that it was on a different leaf than it had been on. Last week it was on a small leaf that had been mostly eaten away by something, and as of yesterday that leaf was completely eaten and this thing was on another, bigger leaf. I figured that whatever it was, the wind must have blown it off the other leaf (to which it appeared to be attached), and it landed on another leaf.

 Today I noticed that the new leaf that it was on was also being eaten. That was too much of a coincidence to me, when it's not like all of the leaves on this little tree are being eaten. But it seemed impossible that this thing could be eating. It was just a blob of... who knows what? But I looked closely, and the thing was in fact eating the leaf. Because there is something inside the blob. And looking through my camera I could see the little head of it moving as it chowed down on the leaf. (I assume that it was not, in fact, blown onto the new leaf, but it walked there. I wish I had seen THAT).

 Here's the view from under the leaf, through the holes it has eaten. Not a definitive shot.

 Okay, slightly better view of that face...

 And even a little better. Let's zoom that shot in...

 And there's the face of the thing! Of course, more questions have arisen now. For instance, what is it?!? And I don't have an answer to that right now. But I hope to eventually. Some kind of caterpillar or other larva is the obvious answer, but of course that is not enough. You can't see a larva and not wonder what it will become.

 I checked it out later, and it had withdrawn inside.

 Here you can see how much it ate today.

Funny tidbit about this peculiar being - I posted the picture of it on facebook as my Backyard Bug of the Day. My husband came home and was in the next room and I heard him say, "What is THAT?!" I was a tiny bit alarmed, because he was in the kitchen, so I asked what he was talking about. "The backyard bug of the day!"

Larva are still a bit of a theme in the backyard today:

 I think this is another species of tent caterpillar. From what I read the other day, though tent caterpillars are social, when it comes time to pupate they all go off on their own. This one looked to be about the size to do that (not that I am an expert. I am just guessing).

Another one of those really weird larvae I kept finding late last summer into the fall. I never did figure out what they become. Also interesting in this picture - it looks like some sort of eggs have been hatching on this tree. And it would appear that these eggs were not noticeable before they hatched. I think I need to give them a closer look tomorrow... hopefully without the creepy larvae lurking nearby.

 Borer

 Anything blue in the backyard catches my eye.

 Something has moulted...

 This could have been BBotD if it had been more cooperative. But I think the weirdness above was a good choice.

The wisteria look better today, so I just had to post a new shot.

 As expected, there are three eggs in the nest on the front porch today. The female will not start incubating the eggs until she has laid all four, but the parents are hanging around the area to guard the nest. They scold when I get too near, which is fine, I try to avoid getting too close, but I do live here. Well, this evening I happened to go look out the front door; I didn't open the screen door, but looked out through it. Apparently one of the parent robins saw me, and it began to scold. I walked away, but a few minutes later came and sat on the stairs inside the house - about twenty feet away from the still open front door. This was evidently too close for the robin who could still see me from outside. It yammered at me until I moved out of view of the door. You know, I am willing to avoid the front of the house for a couple of weeks out of deference to the needs of the birds, but I do think it is asking a bit much for me to avoid areas of the inside of MY OWN HOUSE. Those robins are just going to have to chill. And perhaps they should remember who not only made and hung the wreath they have built their nest on, but who built this house in the first place (That would be me. With the help of a lot of other people. But a lot of it was me)!

 Do you know what this is? Pollen. The reason I look like I am crying half the time.

A slightly better picture of the Baltimore Oriole.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I bet spiders hate pollen.

 Building a web...

 The spider dropped down to some leaves below the web, I think to get away from me.

 It's not unusual for a spider to have things around it when I find them, because they often have remains of their previous meals, or the makings of their next meal, still in their web. So when I spotted this and took the picture (which wasn't all that good, because it was really windy, so I gave up), I assumed that the small thing next to the spider was something it had eaten.

 But when I looked at it on the computer, I realized that it's another spider! This is the same picture as above, but zoomed in. They really don't look like the same species of spider at all, but I think that could still mean they are male and female of the same species. Still, I don't think so. Another interesting thing about the bigger spider is that it has a very small web that is built around it - it is under its web.

For the second time this week I have found a new (to me) species of jumping spider! And this one is gorgeous!

Here's the same picture, zoomed in. It has green front legs! I wish I had been able to get a better shot, and one from the front, but this spider was not at all interested in having its picture taken. It was the jumpiest jumping spider I have ever seen. Also quite small. I happened to be reading a bit about jumping spiders today, and now I know that there are a couple hundred species of them in the US (there are thousands worldwide). I also know that they have quite good vision. In addition to having 360º vision because of the placement of their eight eyes, the big eyes in the front have very sharp vision, unlike what I have read about other spiders, that can really just basically see shapes moving around them. I knew those fabulous eyes had to be seeing better than that!