1 Across

I sat down to do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper today, and the question for 1 Across was this: Porch light circler. Four letters. Easy. Moth. Everyone knows that moths are attracted to porch lights. But as I know, and as you know if you have been reading this blog, moths are not the only bugs that are attracted to the porch light. It attracts flies, hoppers, beetles, lacewings, katydids... so many bugs, of so many different orders. Obviously the correct answer to the question is moths. But anyone who thinks that is the only answer hasn't paid a lot of attention to what's on their porch at night.

I did my bug walk around dusk today, and there weren't many bugs around. This is beginning to be a theme...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I tried to find out what this is, but it's not in any of my books. I am not even sure if it is a Hemiptera or Coleoptera, so I looked in both sections of all the books, and didn't find it.

Speaking of which, I have heard lately of apps for smartphones for identifying birds and flowers. You take a picture with your phone of the bird or the flower (these are separate apps) and the app will identify it for you. I think this sounds great. I wish that made such a thing for insects and spiders. I don't have a smartphone, though. Not that it matters, because no one is going to make an app like that for insects and spiders; not a good one, anyway. It would end up being like all of my books - incomplete. There would always be a billion - not really an exaggeration - bugs that wouldn't be included. I can't even find a book that has all of the caterpillars in my backyard, much less all of the insects. No way anyone would be able to make an app with everything in it. Sure, it would probably be faster to use an app that could tell me in seconds that it had no idea what the bug was, rather than having to go through several books and maybe try doing a web search, but in the end it's the same problem: I have no idea what that bug is.

Remember the spider egg sac I found on the picnic umbrella? Well, no, you won't remember if you skip the spider parts of the blog, but just go along with me here. It turns out that that bold jumping spider is not the only one who thought the picnic umbrella would be a good place to lay some eggs:

 I don't know what these are, exactly, but I have seen baby stinkbugs that have just hatched out of similar eggs, so it could be something like that. At any rate, these are insect eggs.

 Again you can see the line where the egg will open when the bug is ready to emerge. I don't think the underside of my picnic umbrella is such a bad place to lay spider eggs - the spiders will be dispersing on strands of thread after they hatch, but I don't think it's a very good place for these bugs if they happen to be plant eaters/suckers. The umbrella is not a food source, and lacking wings at that age, it will be quite a long walk for the babies to reach a place where there is food. I have often wondered about the decision making process of bugs, and this choice of location for laying eggs is one of those things I wonder about.

Random Bugs:

 While trying to find out what the BBotD is, I found out that this is a meadow plant bug. Which makes sense, given that I always find it on the seed heads of grass plants.

 I don't usually take pictures of dead bugs, but this seemed like a good opportunity to see the underside of a plant bug.

 Moth in the wild

Cranefly. This cranefly just missed landing in a spiderweb, and managed to land on this branch instead. Lucky bug.

Bug Spotting Eye Test:

 You have an advantage over me when I found this - the picture was taken with a flash. I found this in near darkness, in deep shade at dusk.

 Here's the close-up.

 I said I didn't see that many bugs today, but I did see a couple hundred aphids - the goldenrod in one part of the yard is covered in these red aphids. And these two ladybugs (who I don't think are doing what you think they are doing) were there to take advantage of the abundance.

Some bugs have attitude:

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 The bright green in the background is a tennis ball.