Parched

I have a new hypothesis. The reason I am seeing so few bugs lately (comparatively) is because it's so dry. I looked in the newspaper, and according to the weather stats we're not that far behind in rain for the year, but those stats come from a different part of the state. Small as it is, the weather in Connecticut can be very different from one region to another, and there are other areas that have had rain when we haven't, so I think that in my backyard, we're a bit farther behind, and in more of a drought. A lot of bugs feed on plants, either by eating them, or by sucking liquid from them. If the plants are not getting water, they may have less liquid inside them. Which means less to eat. Which means fewer insects. I don't have any stats on any of this, because I am not a scientist, and I don't keep data on what bugs I see, how many, and when. This is just an impression I get from having been doing this for four summers now. None of those previous summers were so dry - in fact, at least one of them was extremely wet. I also almost never see slugs, have only seen two earthworms this year, and have not seen a toad in months. Now, I am happy not to see slugs or earthworms, but I miss the toads. And I think the lack of all three is due to the dry weather.

Because I am a wimp, I waited until the backyard was almost all in shade before doing my bug walk today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I can't find this in my books, but it's the color of a Cheeto, so it's going to be hard for me not to think of this as the Cheeto moth. Or Chester.

 It was extremely cooperative, especially when you consider that this is how I found it, hiding under a leaf. Usually bugs that are hiding under leaves fly away if you try to get this close to them, let alone turn the leaf over to have a better look. I love moths with green eyes...

I am running late here, so now I am just going to go through the pictures and post as I find them.

Random Bugs:

 Ambush bug on a black eyed Susan. They're everywhere...

 Assassin bug on another black eyed Susan. Nice little tent to hide in.

 Something larval this way comes...

Hiding under leaves was a popular activity today.

 Sigh...

 That's better.

 White spotted sable moth?

I found a couple of bug parts, minus the bug...

 Sometimes the things that eat bugs don't eat the whole thing.

 Young stinkbug in my raspberries

 Tiny assassin in there, too.

 Buffalo leaf hopper on a spider plant in my kitchen. Those are fish salt and pepper shakers, in case you're wondering. I don't know where the bug went...

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I found a couple of pretty webs, but I couldn't see the spiders:

 A spider disturbed by my blueberry picking activities.

 Scurrying away.