The Bugs in the Backyard: Buzzing

Remember recently I posted a picture of the sumac flowers in bloom, covered with bees? Well, I forgot about it. The sumac in my yard is down by the street, near the mailbox, and I don't usually include the area by the street in my bug walk, for a variety of reasons. And lately my husband has been bringing in the mail because he is home on summer vacation, so I haven't even been walking down there (and by down there I mean literally. Our house is atop a hill, and the front of the lot is a hill - or more of a cliff, in the spot that's a bedrock outcropping - a low cliff, but a cliff - and to get to the street you either walk down the sloping driveway or the stone steps that lead to the mailbox. I don't know why I am telling you this). Therefore, I forgot about the sumac being in bloom, and all of the bugs that must be attracting. Today I had to go get the mail myself, and while I was down there I decided to walk along the front of the property to see what was new and interesting and noted the blooming sumac again.

I was not the only being to notice the sumac. In the time I spent looking at it I saw (but didn't necessarily photograph) at least twelve, and possibly more, species of bees and wasps on the sumac flowers. Sure, that's a mere drop in the bucket of the 20,000 species of bees in the world, to say nothing of the wasps, but come on, that's pretty impressive for a space of only a couple of feet. Don't you just love biodiversity? And that isn't even counting the other bugs that were there, too. It was a beautiful bug bonanza. It was, however, hard to photograph those bugs because - ah, now it makes sense that I told you - remember that cliff I mentioned a minute ago? Well, it's low at the end where the sumac is growing, but it's still awkward to climb up it to get closer to the sumac flowers, especially when you're wearing gardening clogs. Some great photographic opportunities were lost due to gravity and awkwardness. But I got a few pictures to at least give you a sense of the buzz around the sumac plants, even without any spectacular pictures.

Starting with Backyard Bug of the Day:

Okay, so it wasn't very cooperative.

I am 99% sure that this is a wasp, and not a sawfly.

I know you want to see the other bugs that were on the sumac. That's why you come here, to see bugs.

Other Bugs On the Sumac:

In some of these pictures there are more bugs than you can readily see - some of them are out-of-focus blurs on the flowers.

There's at least 5 different species in this shot.

There were more than just bees and wasps. Here's a hoverfly.

Plume moth

Here comes a butterfly!

I know I just looked this one up recently, but I can't remember what it was called. Actually, it might even be a moth, not a butterfly.

The leaves were also an attraction, for this caterpillar at least.

By comparison the milkweed is practically bereft of insectile company these days.

The milkweed is undergoing a transition period, from flowers to seed pods.

So, Who's On the Milkweed Today?

This gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous blue beetle. This was taken just before that ant literally shoved the beetle off the flower. Quite a shocking moment to witness. There can sometimes be some contention when multiple insects are interested in the same plant, but that level of contrariness is unusual.

I love blue bugs...

I will now inundate you with pictures of an especially cooperative katydid nymph:

Before I knew that this is a katydid nymph I referred to it as the Dr. Seuss Bug...

Ooh, the coyotes are howling again...

Back to the katydid nymph...

Cleaning its back foot

Oh, I am so not going to get this blog done by my deadline...

Random Bugs:

Different bugs on a variety of different flowers...

Very like the blue beetle on the milkweed, but this one is more green, and a little bigger.

When we first bought the land to build our house, I bought a wildflower field guide to identify all of the wildflowers on the property, which I did, but that was 16 years ago. I have forgotten a lot of them. I decided tonight that I wanted to be able to give the names of the flowers, and took out my wildflower field guide and was reminded of what a pain it is to use. So, that flower above (and below) might be daisy fleabane.

Tiny moth

Hopper

Don't know what the flower is, or the bug, but I know at least that the bug is some sort of Hemiptera.

I looked up this flower, too. There are too many similar flowers for me to get this one without actually looking at the plant, so I still don't know what it is.

Plume moth

Weevil on Butter and Eggs

Some sort of Hemiptera on Butter and Eggs

Wooly aphids

When you're looking for bugs sometimes you have to rely on seeing just a part of the bug to find it. Long, waving antenna from under a leaf...

Katydid!

I only spotted this one because I saw it flying and watched where it landed.

Maybe this is too gross, but I thought these bugs were cute, notwithstanding they are eating bird poop.

I checked up on these eggs today. It looks like one in the center may have hatched, and most of the ones in the center have turned dark on the top. I don't know it that's a good sign or a bad one.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I know what you're thinking, that I put this picture in the wrong place, but I didn't. There's a spider there. And now I know why the beetle quickly came back to the top of the leaf after it had gone under to the bottom.