Literature

I am rereading To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee which I read for the first time over 30 years ago. I thought I remembered the book pretty well, in broad terms, but it turns out that there are a lot of very important points in the story that I have been misremembering for all these years. And of course there are a lot of small details I don't remember at all, like this passage:

A roly-poly had found his way inside the house; I reasoned that the tiny varmint had scrawled up the steps and under the door, I was putting my book on the floor beside my cot when I saw him. The creatures are no more than an inch long, and when you touch them the roll themselves into a tight gray ball.
I lay on my stomach, reached down and poked him. He rolled up. Then, feeling safe, I suppose, he slowly unrolled. He traveled a few inches on his hundred legs and I touched him again. He rolled up. Feeling sleepy, I decided to end things. My hand was going down on him when Jem spoke.
Jem was scowling. It was probably a part of the stage he was going through, and i wished he would hurry up and get through it. He was certainly never cruel to animals, but I had never known his charity to embrace the insect world.
"Why couldn't I mash him?" I asked.
"Because they don't bother you," Jem answered in the darkness. He had turned out his reading light.
"Reckon you're at the stage now where you don't kill flies and mosquitoes now, I reckon," I said. "Lemme know when you change your mind. Tell you one thing, though, I ain't gonna sit around and not scratch a redbug."
"Aw dry up," he answered drowsily.

Obviously the book has weightier matters for reflection than whether or not to wantonly squish a roly-poly, and in any case, Jem is clearly affected by a broader picture here, but I have to say I smiled when I read this part today. Because I would have been more like Scout when I read this the first time, and would have probably squished the roly-poly as a matter of policy (without poking it first, even), but now I have a different philosophy, like Jem's. They're not hurting you, so there's no need to squish them. Coincidentally, my husband today asked if he should get rid of the wasp's nest (and therefore the wasp) in the shed. I said it's not hurting us, so leave it alone - it got a little bit aggressive last week when I put away the lawn mower, but it didn't sting me. And I have been inches away from that nest with my camera and it has left me alone. No need to kill the wasp. However, I still kill mosquitoes when they try to bite me, and though I don't know what a redbug is, it is death to all ticks.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 My attempt to find out what species this beetle is was unsuccessful. I didn't even find out what family it is in. It might be some kind of flower longhorn, but it might not.

 Great, thanks for the cooperation.

 Zoomed-in look at the beetle's eyes, because bug eyes are amazing.

Since the Backyard Bug of the Day was on milkweed, let's continue with Who's On the Milkweed Today?

 The recently ubiquitous banded hairstreak. And a weevil.

 This might be a firefly.

Still lots of plume moths

 I think this is a honeybee. There are always a lot of bumblebees in the backyard, and there are many other species of bees, too, but I don't see a lot of honeybees.

Random Bugs:

 Everybody knows that moths are attracted to lights, but around here they are also attracted to sinks.

 This daddy-long-legs was in the bathroom this morning, too. I guess the screen on the bedroom window wasn't closed all the way last night.

 I wish I'd been able to get a closer shot of this, but it was inside the garden fence, and I was outside, and by the time I got the wonky gate open and got in there, it flew away. It was an enormous wasp (I think). Very impressive.

 A red aphid

 Moth in the wild

 Early on in my bug hunting career I was surprised on occasion at what kinds of bugs I was finding in my own backyard, not realizing how "exotic" nature could be so close to home. When I posted a picture of this kind of tree hopper last year it elicited the same kind of reaction from people who saw the picture. "This was in your YARD?" was the general feeling expressed.

 Tiny hopper nymph

 A closer look. Quite an elaborate pattern.

 Side view.

 Hoverfly on black eyed Susan

 Plume moth on the storm door. For some reason I only ever see these white ones at night.

 Click beetle on the storm door

 It doesn't show as well in the picture, but this is a green moth

 All of the recent rain has brought out a fungus among us - several species of mushrooms are popping up in shady areas.

This is a curious thing. I guess it is probably just a dried up piece of a plant, but the weird thing is, I don't think it belongs to the plant it is on.

It doesn't seem to be growing, or rather, since it is dried up and dead, it doesn't seem to have grown on that stem. It looks like it was jabbed into it.

Some interesting eggs on the crab apple tree

They are held together in a mass with something that looks like resin. I didn't touch it to see if it was hard, or sticky, or gooey, or what.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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The purple spider is still hanging around on the milkweed.

It has caught something.

Crab spider on black eyed Susan - really, really small crab spider. Like, maybe one or two millimeters.