Milkweed - It Does a Bug Good

I was a little soap boxy yesterday, and the issue is still on my mind today, but today all I am going to say about it is, if you want to do a small something to promote biotic diversity in the world, plant some wildflowers in your yard. You don't have to give over huge swaths of your yard to nature like I have done, and you don't have to give up your lawn if you can't, just have a least a small patch of growing things that belong in whatever your geographic region is. Native plants, not something exotic. Flowers, specifically. Milkweed is a nice choice - it's the host plant for monarch butterflies, who are really suffering from habitat loss these days, but it is also attractive to a lot of other insects as well. And for your own benefit, milkweed flowers are gorgeous and smell absolutely incredible. Do it for the butterflies and bees and beetles.

I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do today, and a much higher than usual percentage of them are absolute rubbish. So, enjoy!

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This bug has the very poetic name of Four Lined Plant Bug. My book says it feeds on plants. All very mundane stuff for a bug that I think is quite snazzy in appearance.

 Also, yesterday I misidentified this bug as a beetle. It's not, it's a true bug, a Hemiptera. Note the proboscis in this otherwise unimpressive photo.

Daily Weirdness:

 Remember that bright pinks stuff I found on the leaves of a few trees, that I assumed was insect eggs of some kind? Well, I still don't know what it is, but I found some one some other leaves today that had mostly changed from pink to clear/white.

 Here's the above picture zoomed in. Intriguing...

 Having seen quite a few ladybug larvae over the last week, the next step is to see this - pupating ladybug larvae. It's quite an interesting thing. It attaches to a leaf at the back end, and the front end can still move around if it is disturbed. In the front it looks like a ladybug, in the back it looks like a ladybug larva, and in the middle it looks like neither. It would be awesome to some day come across a larva going through the process of turning into this - and then to see a ladybug emerge.

 Note the back end that looks like the spiky larva.

Random Bugs:

This is a particular behavior of looper caterpillars that I don't understand at all. Caterpillars have a lot of muscles, and every one of them must be straining for this. Picture what it feels like after doing a hundred crunches, and that has to be what this is like for a caterpillar. Or not. Otherwise, why would they do it? They don't have that human hangup about having six-pack abs.

 I keep talking about how many caterpillars I have been finding, but I realized today, it's larva in general that are taking over the backyard. I believe these are some kind of beetle larva, but I don't know what kind. As little as insect guides cover caterpillars, they cover the larva of other species of insects much, much less.

 This could be the same kind, but (and I know you can't tell from the pictures) much bigger, and this one was off on its own (though there was another one on the next plant over).

 I think these gymnastic moves were meant to intimidate me.

 It didn't work.

 Aesthetically this is one of my favorite bugs to find in the backyard, but it is also one of the least cooperative. It is a miracle I got so many pictures in focus today, because this thing wouldn't stop moving.

This is a stink bug, scientific name Stiretrus anchorago, order Hemiptera. I like it because of the patterns on the back, and the fact that it is slightly pink. You don't see a lot of pink insects.

 Skipper

 My hypothesis is that this awkward moth posture is involved in broadcasting pheromones to attract a mate.

 I think this is one of those beetle larva that pile junk on their back as camouflage. The junk in question looks like droppings of some sort, which is disgusting, but I can see how that would discourage other creatures from eating you.

 Another view

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This harvestman pulled its legs up in what I interpreted as a defensive gesture as I got close with my camera, to which I say, Dude, I am impressed by your chutzpa, but I can literally squash you like a bug.