After the Tempest

I think the rain yesterday washed all of the bugs away. Or maybe they were all afraid to come out today after that violent weather. We only got a little less than an inch with the two storms combined, but that was less than an hour of raining. It rained really hard. Plus all that wind, and the hail... the newspaper article I read about it said we may have had a microburst, which is similar to a tornado, but without the swirling. All in all, I prefer the microburst. But I know if I was a bug, hail would be pretty terrifying. Not to mention rain drops bigger than me. All this is to say, I didn't find a lot of bugs today, and those I did find were in a big hurry to be somewhere, so I didn't get a lot of pictures. So maybe today it won't take me four hours to do this blog...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Baby stinkbug, I believe. About 1/8 of an inch. Very cute, but in quite a hurry.

Who's On the Milkweed Today:

 We were in the car, heading down the driveway, when I looked over at the milkweed in front of the house and saw that there was a Fritillary Feeding Frenzy going on.

By the time my husband stopped the car, I grabbed my camera, got out and got over there, these were the two that were left, but there were four or five when I spotted them, and I can't be sure, but I think there was one of another species, too.

 Mostly it was just the usual suspects on the milkweed today.

 For some reason these earwigs lurking inside among the buds, with just their spiky backsides hanging out struck me as funny.

 For bugs that I have always been slightly afraid of, they really do seem cuddly. I mean with each other. I am not going to cuddle an earwig. I believe these are both females, by the way, based on the size of their pincers.

 I almost didn't bother to try for this shot. I am glad I did.

 This particular species of hopper often confuses me - I can't always tell which side is the front. It's the side to the right of the picture, in case you can't tell.

 Yeah, that kind of day.

 I didn't get any mail today. I assume it is not because the postal carrier looked in the mailbox and was frightened away by the caterpillar and earwigs. Are all mailboxes teeming with insect (and arachnid, sometimes) life, or just mine? It's hard to see all the way back in the mailbox, but that caterpillar looks like it is attached to the wall by a series of threads, like Gulliver in Lilliput.

 For a while there I was seeing a lot of gypsy moth caterpillars, and then suddenly, I didn't see them anymore. Today I saw two of them in different parts of the yard, and they were huge. I am guessing that the reason I haven't seen them in a while is that they were up in the trees eating, and I am seeing them now because they are coming down to find places to pupate. I did see another big one about a week ago. I didn't realize that gypsy moth caterpillars got so big - I don't remember that from the horrid infestation in the early 80s. But then, I wasn't looking closely at them at that time. I was just trying to avoid stepping on them or having them drop out of trees into my hair. [shudder] Anyway, these were 2 to 2 1/2 inches long, and quite thick. Not what I expected at all. Of course, I could be wrong, and these could be some other kind of caterpillar. But I don't think so. I guess in either of these scenarios I am wrong about something, but I am okay with that. The more I learn about bugs, the more I realize how little I know. But that just means there is a lot more for me to learn, so it's cool.

 Caterpillar Close-up.

 I think this is a cocoon made out of frass held together with silk. Which makes me want to say to the caterpillar transforming inside, all the other caterpillars found something not disgusting to build their cocoons out of, why couldn't you?

Arachnid Appreciation:
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As a proportion of Arthropod species found today, there were a lot of spiders.

 I am not sure it this spider and the one above are the same species, or different. They are certainly similar, jumping spiders that are kind of gold iridescent. But this one is gold and PURPLE iridescent. I am so delighted to have purple spiders in my backyard... The one above is gold and green. But I don't know if the color has to do with the angle of light, and would be different from a different point of view, or... You get what I am saying right? These might be the same kind of spider, and they might not.