Blink

It doesn't get more summer than this: standing on the back porch, listening to the singing of crickets and watching fireflies. Summer, like spring, has more than one beginning: meteorological summer begins on June 1st, astronomical summer begins on June 21st this year, and as an extra, the unofficial in any way start of summer is Memorial Day, this past Monday. It has certainly been hot enough to be summer for the last two weeks, give or take an odd chilly day. But that's not really what makes a summer, and for me, I think the crickets and fireflies mean that summer is really here. Given how late spring was in coming, I wasn't expecting the fireflies for a while (in spite of the recent heat), but they're here, and I am overjoyed to see them lighting up my little bit of the world.

I didn't take any pictures of the fireflies - it's almost impossible, and I just wanted to enjoy them. So they are not the Backyard Bugs of the Day, even though they are in my heart.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Caterpillar Close-ups:

 Different caterpillar from above.

Today I realized why there are so many kinds of bees:

 There are a lot of different kinds of flowers. A bumblebee would never be able to pollinate this flower (which is called a something something something rocket. Except I am using the word something to replace the words I can't remember).

 Anyway, the rocket is suddenly in bloom, and it was very popular with these bees (or wasps. I still can't tell the difference).

 Some kind of hopper. Taken just before it flew away.

I don't know what they're eating, but it kind of looks like a caterpillar. I am beginning to wonder how there are any butterflies or moths at all, given the fatality rate of caterpillars.

Here's a live one. It's on the same plant as those ants, though, so it better watch out.

 Dragonfly! Not the first I have seen this year, but the first to land so I could take its picture.

 The new backyard trend: trees with two forest tent caterpillars on their trunks.

 Ladybug larva

Ever wonder what a tick looks like from underneath?

 Neither have I, but now we both know. I did another test of the tick repellent pants. This time I put my foot up on a rock so my thigh was parallel to the ground, and put the tick on my thigh. It walked rapidly to the side and jumped off. Or it could have fallen. But it looked deliberate this time.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This jumping spider has an enormous abdomen in relation to the size of its cephalothorax, compared to other jumping spiders I have seen.