A Gnat Flew In My Eye - That Would Make Anyone Grumpy!

I am too grumpy today to say anything worthwhile, unless you count lambasting gnats as worthwhile, so let's just skip right to the good stuff: pictures of bugs.

Well, maybe first something really cute to cheer me up...

Baby bunny. I scared it, it startled me, we had a moment.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

There is a picture of this beetle in one of my books, The Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America, but it only identifies the genus, Anomala, not the species. It says that there are at least 40 species in North America, and that they are "difficult to tell apart, even for experts." Well, that leaves me out.

Still, it's pretty cool.

Except for the fact that it has a big, glaring face on its back. Maybe it should be called the Scary Face Beetle.

Aw, but look at that sweet face!

The bugs were being quite contrary today, and because I am trying to make a point that there are always a lot of bugs on milkweed, most of the milkweed didn't have any bugs today. But there were enough to play Who's On the Milkweed Today?

Remember I told you that there was another species of plum moth that frequents my yard in summer that was darker in color than the one that was BBotD the other day? This is it. It is also smaller than the one the other day.

Still can't remember this one's name, and couldn't find it in my books in my cursory search.

Yeah, it was that kind of day...

Red milkweed beetle

And that's it for bugs on milkweed today. I did see the great spangled fritillary on the milkweed a few times, but it never stayed for me to take its picture.

Random Bugs:

I swear this bee wanted its picture taken.

 Aw, siblings cuddling! At least, I assume they are siblings.

 Definitely that kind of day. There are TWO bugs in this picture being uncooperative.

 I found this bug climbing the trunk of a tree. I have an ignorant hypothesis about it. I have occasionally found a bug that looks like this, but bright green and smaller, climbing this tree in the past few months. So here's my hypothesis. This is that same bug, but it is getting ready to moult. You can see that there is a tinge of green there, and this looks like a hopper of some kind that doesn't have wings yet - maybe its exoskeleton turns dark right before a moult? I have no actual facts to base this on, it's just a guess.

 This bug has an amazingly flat profile.

 Ants are so disorganized. Here we see two ants dragging a... grub, or something. It started as one ant. Then another ant came along so the first ant dropped its burden, and the other ant picked it up and started carrying it in the opposite direction. Then that ant dropped it, and the first ant picked it up again, and resumed its original direction. This is the point where they both started working together.

 Firefly on the front walk.

 Firefly on my hand. Fireflies are hard to photograph. Especially when they're on your hand.

 Remember that yellow egg mass I posted a shot of the other day? Here's what it looks like today.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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It's kind of disappointing that after a few good spider days I am reduced to two spiders, neither having posed nicely.