Night Bugs

We were out a bit late this evening, so I am behind schedule...

I procrastinated a long time today before going on my bug walk, because my weather sensor is still having delusions of January, and I thought it was really hot outside, but when I went out, it wasn't so bad. It was definitely a warm day, way more than the 32ºF the sensor is still claiming, but not as bad as I was dreading. Which is why I need a weather sensor to tell me what's going on outside.

There were not a lot of bugs to be found today, not even the usual flies - and for the last few days at least part of each bug walk has been conducted with a fly buzzing around my head. There were a LOT more on the porch when I got home tonight, and since I got home just before midnight, they count as today's bugs. Actually, I took some pictures of bugs on the window screen last night, but I foolishly appear to have deleted those. Oh well, they were nothing spectacular.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Green lacewing

 There was one on the porch when I got home tonight - a much smaller one. Actually, this kind of looks like a different species... Anyway, there was also one on the window screen last night, one of the pictures I deleted.

 Oh, look, pretty milkweed buds!

 Found this gorgeous egg on the porch tonight, too. It's transparent, so I am hoping at some point to be able to see what's going on inside. Also it looks like there is a perforated line where the egg will eventually open.

Random Bugs:

 Caterpillar climbing a silk thread

 I can't be sure, but I think that blob of fuzz might be the silk it is climbing - I think it was balling it up as it went up.

 Not on speaking terms...

Blogging in a recumbent position now... It makes for awkward typing, and many typos...

 Tiny moth about 1/4 inch

 This is the most ruthlessly efficient bumblebee I have ever seen.

 I thought that this bug really wanted to be on the blog today, because it buzzed past me and landed right in front of me as I stepping onto the porch...

 ... but then it scurried away from the camera, and ultimately took off, landing on the wall too high for me to get a picture.

The porch light tonight attracted a great variety of insects, most of them small flies and moths that were flying around the light and unwilling to be photographed, or too high up on the wall. A lot of them were quite commonplace moths that I didn't bother to take pics of, because I have taken plenty of them over the last few years.  The exciting thing is that there were several bugs I have never seen before:

 Like this hopper...

 ... and this one...

 Big beetle

Playing dead, very conveniently so that I can get a picture of its underside.

 In case you can't tell from this picture, this was a pretty big moth. Not luna moth proportions, but about two inches front to back.

 At the moment it seems easier to find bugs at night than during the day. So many on the porch tonight, at least thirty on the window screen at the moment, and a chorus of crickets that sound like they are right under the window (man, crickets can be LOUD).

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I didn't realize until I looked at my pictures today that the only spider I saw today was this one that was on the porch when we got home this evening:

It is quite spectacular - I think this is another new-to-me species of jumping spider. So gorgeous. Unfortunately, this is the only shot I got, because just as I was about to take a closer shot, a clumsy moth bumped into it and knocked it off the wall! I couldn't find it after that.