Manipulating Murphy's Law

I know what you're wondering. Did all my taunting of the weather pay off in rain? Well, I'll let the bugs tell you the answer to that question.

 The backyard was full of woebegone bumblebees today. And not a single honeybee, because they obviously have the sense to stay out of the rain.

Also waterlogged was the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This fly, which I think is a species of tachinid fly, was huge.

 Not a good picture, but you can see the pretty blue/green color of it here.

Random Bugs:

 Finally seeing a lot of small milkweed bugs.

 Hoverfly

 I saw a LOT of sowbugs today. They like dampness, and we had a lot of it today (and got about 3 inches of rain, by the way).

 Assassin bug... and three sowbugs. And part of a dead bug.

 I think this is a rove beetle.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I think this is a jumping spider. It was very small, and moving, so I didn't get a good look, or a good picture, but it sort of looks like one.

 I think this is a jumping spider, too.

 One false move...

It's Not Raining

Does it count as having rained if you can literally count the raindrops? No? Then it didn't rain today, in spite of the forecast insisting that it would. The forecast says it is going to rain every day for the next week or so, which means it won't. It was very cloudy for most of the day, though, so that's something, I guess. There was apparently so much rain there was flooding in other parts of the northeast, but certainly not here.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I thought this was a squash bug, but when I looked it up, it doesn't look like the squash bugs in my book. It seems to fall into the category of leaf-footed bugs, though, so let's go with that. Hemiptera.

Random Bugs:

 Two looper caterpillars. I don't know if their different colors mean different species.

Cricket

 Assassin bug

 Bee and yet another looper caterpillar

 Hopper of some kind. I was holding onto the leaf when it hopped off, and I actually felt the vibration of its launch. Most impressive.

 Small milkweed bugs

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I think this one is new for me. Some kind of orb weaver.

 These are everywhere. It doesn't blend in nearly as well on this milkweed seed pod, though.

Mind Your Head

I presume that the reason that another name of autumn is fall is because of the falling leaves. But right now what is falling in my backyard is acorns. Lots of them.

 They come clattering out of the trees in bunches. There's one tree I avoid walking under, because I don't want to be bonked on the head. Every once in a while one will land on the shed, making a loud bang. Oddly, I am not seeing squirrels around, madly collecting them. There will be plenty of food for the deer this winter, as long as all these acorns don't get buried under two feet of snow so they can't find them.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is either a twenty-spot lady beetle or a fourteen-spot lady beetle. The distinction has nothing to do with the number of spots. Unfortunately, they both look a lot alike to me.

I had a lot of this happening today when I tried to take pictures of bugs:

 Small milkweed bug

 Beetle

 Sharpshooter

Spindle legged something, or something like that

 Earwig

It was sort of frustrating. Still I found more bugs today than I have a lot of other days, so it wasn't all bad.

Random Bugs:

 After having mentioned lately that I hardly ever see beetles anymore, I found a few today. There was the lady beetle above, and this net-winged beetle, found crawling out of a funnel web spider's web...

 ... and this. Whatever this is. There are actually two bugs in this picture, but one of them is hard to recognize as a bug - the green vertical line in the background on the left is a looper caterpillar. I only saw it myself because it moved.

 Assassin bug - Hemiptera, not a beetle

 Tree cricket

 Bee. Lots of those around still, but mostly too fast for pictures.

Here's a better look at the small milkweed bug, on goldenrod.

 Wasp

 Flies.

 Yesterday's Backyard Bug of the Day, still sitting on the same leaf.

 Here's a better look at the sharpshooter.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 A spider trying to blend in on a branch

I spotted this jumping spider trying to climb on my computer. Must have wanted to get on the web. I told it that was not the way to get on my blog.