Speak Softly, And Carry A Stick Bug

Something pretty momentous happened today in my career as a bug watcher, and I am going to commemorate it by breaking two of my blog rules: One, I am going to post a picture that was taken somewhere other than my backyard, and two, I am going to take a picture taken by someone other than me. Because this is worth the breaking of two rules.

Bug of the Day:

 I finally found a walking stick bug! Or, more accurately, my husband found it. In a swimming pool where we were swimming. He pointed it out to me, and I rescued it from drowning (I rescue a lot of bugs from that pool. It's a sort of hybrid between a pond and a swimming pool - there are fish in it - and a lot of bugs end up in it for some reason). Needless to say, I did not have my camera with the macro lens with me, but my niece, being a teenager, had her phone, and she took the picture for me. So I didn't take it, but it is a picture of my hand, and the bug that I saved from drowning. I am a teensy bit disappointed that this didn't happen in my yard (the finding a stick bug part. I don't have a swimming pool or a pond, so the rest of it couldn't happen there), but I am happy to have finally seen a stick bug in real life.

That was Bug of the Day, now here is Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is a Wedge-Shaped Beetle (which I misidentified as a tumbling flower beetle a while back). The Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America describes it as a "bizarre parasite." The female lays her eggs on flowers, and when they hatch, the larva grab onto bees that visit the flowers and then get transported to the bees' nests where they feed on the larva of the bees. It's quite a gruesome system, in my mind.  The adult only lives for about two days, apparently.

 I am going to post a whole bunch of pictures, so you can get a sense of what they are like, climbing all over the flowers to feed. There were three on this plant.

 All three I saw today were females. It's a pity the males weren't there, too, so you could see the difference between them. It is quite obvious. The males have antennae that look like a cross between a moose's antlers and a feather. They are quite spectacular. It is a very obvious bit of sexual dimorphism.

 It's quite comical to watch them eat, burying their heads in these tiny flowers (which might be mountain mint. Even though I don't live on a mountain).

 These two got a bit feisty with each other, which was totally uncalled for, since there were plenty of flowers. They didn't both have to go after these.

 Tempers and wings flared.

Ambush Bugs are still to be found everywhere:

 Another successful ambush

 Japanese beetles

 Skipper

 Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly

 Hatched, or eaten?

Arachnid Appreciation:
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