Mad Skills

I giggled when I read the weather forecast in the paper today after my bug walk. It said that there would be a breeze today that would make it pleasant. In reality there were high winds that made it cold, and made it very difficult for me to take pictures of bugs. I didn't even bother trying with some of the bugs I saw, the plants they were on were whipping around too much to even give me a hope of success. I have a lot of out-of-focus pictures from today's bug walk.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is the nymph of some kind of leaf hopper.

I found more of this today:

 Another tree with this bright pink mass on some of its leaves. Right now I am thinking this is insect eggs.

Here's one effect of the gale force winds today:

 This is the same specimen of cedar apple rust that I posted a picture of yesterday. The wind today was so drying that it has already reverted to its dried out state, and no longer has the gelatinous, alien goo look. (By the way, we only got 1/4 inch of rain yesterday).

Random Bugs:

If you have not hitherto been impressed with my mad insect photography skills, you should be now. This is an in-focus picture of a tiny caterpillar hanging from a thread in high winds. Nailed it!

More caterpillars...

 This is the biggest case moth caterpillar I have seen. That's not saying much, because it was still tiny. This is also the only one I have seen with these striking markings. The others have been basically plain. Or maybe they were too small to see the patterns.

 It seemed to be struggling with that huge case (at least 1/2 inch long!) in the high winds.

Lots of assassins today (I'm only going to show you two)...

I think this is a hoverfly. Not hovering at the moment.

 I am not sure if this is a wasp or a sawfly.

 As you can tell from my hand in this picture, I am not particularly afraid of bees (It's closer than it looks. When it's windy I often have to hold onto leaves/stems/whatevers in order to get pictures of the bugs on them).

 The bees today were a little sluggish, which I think is because it was kind of chilly out.

Sluggish bees are great for photography.

 When I first saw this little critter scuttling along I assumed it was one of those with an overabundance of legs, but looking at the picture (which by some miracle is in focus - this thing was FAST), it only has six. Which I guess means it's an insect. I am going to guess it is a nymph of some kind, though.

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 Here's a cool spider...

 ... and here's that spider when I got too close for its comfort with my camera. It pulled in its legs, I assume to be smaller and less noticeable, but in reality it just looks like it is meditating.

 There's a lot of spider hate in the world, but I think there should be more spider compassion. It's not easy to be a spider. Your web gets covered in pollen, or seed fuzz or... Well, this web is directly under a colony of sawfly larvae. I'll let you figure out what it's full of.

I caught this spider in my bug vacuum late last night, and at the time I didn't want to bother releasing it outside, so I set it on the coffee table, meaning to release it today. Then I forgot about it, until this evening when it moved inside the tube, and the movement caught my eye and I remembered the poor captive. I also realized something I should have realized last night when I inadvertently sucked up a ladybug at the same time I sucked up the spider - I trapped the ladybug in the vacuum with a predator. Well, at least the spider didn't go hungry today, waiting for its release. Sorry ladybug.