A Thousand Words Are Worth a Picture?

I don't have a Backyard Bug of the Day to post today. This was not a good day for bug-finding in the backyard. Except that I did see a couple of great bugs, that were solid candidates to be Backyard Bug of the Day, except that they failed the main criterion of becoming Backyard Bug of the Day and that is being photographed. So, since I don't have pictures of these cool bugs, I will tell you the stories of my encounters with them.

Actually, the first story is about a bug that didn't qualify to be Backyard Bug of the Day today because it has already been so honored recently, but it is still a story about a bug encounter, and is a good illustration of how uncooperative the bugs were today. The first bug I encountered on my bug walk today was an American Dagger Moth, which landed on the back of my neck. I heard the buzz of its wings - big moths' wings buzz as much as a bee's do - and then felt it land on my neck. Of course, I thought it was a bee. But it quickly took off and landed on a nearby tree - just long enough for me to see what it was, and most certainly not long enough for me to take a picture.

The second frustrating bug encounter involved a really awesome wasp that flew in front of me, landed on a bush, mostly obscured by leaves, and then before I could do anything about getting into position to take a picture, flew away again and seemed to vanish into thin air.

The third bug encounter was really cool; there was a huge, blue dragon fly that spent several minutes flying back and forth in front of me, looping around in a figure eight pattern about twenty feet long. I asked it to please land so I could take its picture, but it declined. The cool thing is that I saw it catch a bug. It was a tiny gnat, one of a million in the backyard today, and the dragonfly didn't even land to eat it (I saw one do that once when it caught a moth), it just kept on flying. Eventually it flew off down another path, and that was that.

I did have one bug encounter that actually was caught on camera, but again it is a bug that has recently been Backyard Bug of the Day, so I can't have it again today, but here are the pictures:

 This caterpillar reacted to my voice with what I think was a thread display. It waved those rear appendages around in a circle (like waving a lasso). It was very impressive. Not especially intimidating, though.

 It also appears to have its body kind of scrunched up, as caterpillars sometimes do.

Random Bugs:

 Buffalo tree hopper

 Katydid

 Honeybee - a lot of these around again today.

 The caterpillar in the dining room is getting reading to pupate. It has been huddled up in the corner of its enclosure since this morning. I am once again annoyed at the location chosen to pupate, because it's basically impossible for me to get a good picture, and because I filled the enclosure with perfectly good sticks for the purpose of pupating, but no, the caterpillar needs to go in a corner where I can barely see it.

Arachnid Appreciation... Sort of:

Not even worth the buffer I usually put in, because all it is is a web, no actual arachnid.