The Bugs in the Backyard: Bees In the News

Bugs were back on the front page again today - I wonder if this is a week-long feature or something... Anyway, today was bad news about bees. Scientists, who apparently haven't really studied wild bees much in all the time there have been wild bees to study - or rather, as long as there have been scientists to study them - have found that four species of wild bees in Connecticut are now gone from the state. The article in general is about the decline in bee populations, but the disappearance of these four species, out of the 337 different bee species to be found in Connecticut, is of particular concern. No one knows why it's happening, but the theories are all based on human behavior, whether from pesticides to development causing habitat loss and changing the bee diet. (Plant more wildflowers!) It is a sad article. And ironic, because it details the way that scientists study bee populations by trapping and killing bees so they can get an up close look at them.

There is a particular quote in the article that made me smile smugly:

"The general public pretty much doesn't know of the existence of wild bees."

I know of the existence if wild bees; I photograph them daily in my backyard. And you know of the existence of wild bees, if you have been reading this blog. However, I am pretty sure I have not seen 337 different species of them. On the other hand, I might have - it's hard to tell them apart, and even the scientists have to trap and kill them, and the look at them with magnification and such to identify them sometimes. So who knows? I knew I didn't have the 20,000 species of bees found world-wide in my backyard. But I have a fair few.

After all that a bee should be Backyard Bug of the Day, but it's not. Unless this thing is a bee. I am not really sure what it is. Backyard Bug of the Day:

Getting a good picture of this bug while it is flying has been a goal for the last several years. You can see how it's going.

It's actually not easy to get a picture of it not flying, either, because it doesn't usually sit still for long. I haven't figured out what this is yet, whether it is a fly, a bee, a wasp... It is another bug that looks like it was designed by Dr. Seuss, back before he was Dr. Seuss and was working as an illustrator for an advertising agency, and did a series of ads with the tag line, "Quick Henry, the flit!"

My guess would be that that long thing in the back, which it sometimes fold up against its body, is an ovipositor. But don't take that as fact.

So, remember that picture I posted of some strange eggs, I think it was yesterday, and one of the eggs was opened, and the others had turned dark, which I thought meant they were either all dead inside for some reason, or ready to hatch? Well...

Question answered: ready to hatch. More baby assassin bugs!

That one in the middle that looks like it is still stuck to the eggs has a MUCH longer body that the others. I wonder if they look like that when they first emerge, and then their bodies contract.

More eggs of unknown origin. This is a familiar shape, so maybe they are stink bugs. It looks like their original color is green.

Who's On the Milkweed Today?

On most of the plants, nobody. But this one was host to several hoppers and an earwig.

Before I show you the random bug I want to mention that I had a really hard time finding bugs today. It won't look like it when you see how many random bugs I have to post, but I spent a LONG time outside today looking for bugs. I don't usually have to work this hard at finding them. There were lots of flowers they completely ignored. It was a nice day, hottish, but not humid. I don't know where they were all hiding. The best bug, thought, is one I am not sure I saw - that is, I saw something, but I am not sure it was what I thought it was. I may have seen a hummingbird moth from the kitchen window. I didn't even bother grabbing the camera to go out - that thing was gone in a flash.

I did also see something else that was bizarre - at first it looked like there was a stick flying through the air. No, it wasn't a giant stick bug - this thing was at least a foot long, and bobbing along about ten feet off the ground. I was so puzzled by it that I didn't even think to try to take a picture of it. When it got closer to me I realized it was a piece of long grass or a plant stem, being carried by as wasp.

You have just got to go sit out in your backyard and watch the things that live out there in the world.

Random Bugs:

It is an overstatement to say I couldn't find any bugs, because I could readily find these, which I think are young assassins, all over this plant. There are three on this leaf, but there are about four or five others on nearby leaves and on the stem that you can't see.

Plume moths

It was that kind of day.

This plant doesn't have thorns.

Wait, this beetle is on milkweed. This picture is in the wrong place.

The lone bee I saw on these flowers. There are several of these plants, all gloriously blooming - they should be covered with bees! Nope, just this one.

Don't worry, it's not fall yet. This is a broken branch.

I really want to know what this is.

Another baby assassin

One of the 337 species of bees in Connecticut.

And another one. Except I think this is a cuckoo wasp.

Did I mention it was that kind of day?

Lace bug

Remember the picture from yesterday of a bug hiding between some leaves, and I had no idea what it was? Here it is, juvenile stink bug (though really, it's hard not to think that all stink bugs are perpetually juvenile. I mean, come on).