Soggy and Buggy

No blog yesterday because it rained all day - giving us a welcome inch and a bit of rain. Today everything was still soggy (and it was grotesquely humid), but the weather suited the bugs, because there were more of them today than I have seen in a while. So, let's look at some bugs!

Actually, first let's look at a plant:

 Yes, milkweed! Isn't it cool?

 Bees like it.

 And this bug, which I thought was a small milkweed bug, but it wasn't, and now I don't know what it is, and yes, this is the best picture I got of it.

 Earwigs like it. Yes, best picture I got of this, too.

 Posting because this is almost a really good picture.

 Weevils like it. See, this one seems to have cut a heart shape out of the leaf. This species of weevils in particular likes milkweed.

 This likes it.

All those bugs and MORE like milkweed. For instance, monarch butterflies (which I have yet to see this year) Plant some in your yard!

This, by the way, is a small milkweed bug. And when I say it is a small milkweed bug, I don't mean it is a small specimen of the species milkweed bug. I mean it is a specimen of the species small milkweed bug.
How about another plant?

This is a bad picture of common mullein. Last year was a terrible year for common mullein - there were very few plants and they didn't exactly thrive. But this year it has made a comeback. By the way, the taller one in the back is almost as tall as I am. Common mullein is also quite popular with bugs.

 Weevils, for instance.

 Some sort of Hemiptera...

 Another common mullein plant, another weevil...

 At first I thought there were two bugs in this picture, the weevil and a thrips, but I spy another one...

 See it? Don't know what it is, though.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Can you see it?

 Just kidding. I got a better picture than that. And look, it has a friend!

In order to take this picture, I had to stand on the compost pile, which does not smell very good. I think it was worth it, though. I thought this was a butterfly, but it's not, it's a moth. Specifically, a White Striped Black. Very clever, those bug namers. The book is a bit confusing on this point, but I believe that this comes from a looper caterpillar of some kind, which is cool to know. Also, you probably can't tell from the picture, but this moth is only about an inch wide from wingtip to wingtip.

And now for many Random Bugs:

 Skipper

 Larva of some kind (can't tell if it's a caterpillar or not) under a roof of silk

 Weevil that looks like it's been quilted, or made of corduroy

 Long-legged fly

 Candy Striped Leaf Hopper. This is a pretty significant bug for me. The year I first started doing macrophotograpny of bugs, this was the first bug I saw that made me say, "WHOA! We have bugs that look like that here in Connecticut?" To me this looked like something from a tropical rainforest. Now I have seen a lot of bugs that are colorful, and weird, and exotic looking, but back then, I had no idea of the diverse beauty of the bugs here. And to think, they were all right there, all along, and I had never thought to look.

 Hoverfly hovering

 Assassin bug

 Moth that looks like something else

Crane fly

 Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Poor thing