Memories and Seasons

I keep saying that things in the backyard are different this year than they have been before, so last night I decided to read my blog posts from around this time last year, and here's what I said: "I think the reason I am not finding many bugs is because of the dry summer we have had." I also posted about how strange it was that I wasn't seeing a lot of dragonflies zipping around in the evening, and noted that there are a lot of assassin bugs around. All things that I have been saying so far. BUT there is a big difference between my posts last year at this time, and my posts recently, and that is that the posts from last year show a lot more bugs than I am finding this year. So maybe I was finding fewer bugs in mid September last year than I had been finding before, but I am obviously finding a lot fewer bugs this year. Also, last year my posts were complaining that it was cold; this year it is HOT. We've had highs about ten degrees above normal for most of this month so far (That is supposed to change tomorrow, to more "seasonable" levels). Unfortunately, of the four summers I have been observing the bugs in my backyard, I have only been blogging for two of them, so I don't know what it was like in the Septembers before last (actually, this time two years ago I spent a week and a half in England, so I really don't know what it was like in my backyard at that time). Still, it was funny (and a bit chagrining) to find out that I was whining about the exact same things, in the exact same words, a year ago. I guess I am not very creative. Having said all this, I do have a decent number of bugs to show you today.

Second observation of the day: We are accustomed to thinking of our year as having four seasons, more or less (at least, in parts of the world that actually have seasons). Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. We base them on the position of the earth in relation to the sun, and have certain correlations of weather with these seasons. But if you look closely at nature, there are a lot more seasons, because plants, birds, bugs, living things in general seem to have their own seasons. There are blooming seasons, and mating seasons, and migrating seasons. You see different flowers, and different bugs, at different points during the spring, summer, and fall. You will have a season of caterpillars, followed by a season of butterflies or moths. Something will appear in abundance, and then disappear entirely. To everything, there is a season.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I couldn't find this in my books, but it is a fly of some kind. It kind of makes me think of Batman. I've never seen it before, and it is great to be finding new things still.

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 I think this is a frog, not a toad, but I am not all that clear on the difference. I read somewhere that all toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads, meaning that toads are a subset of the frogs, but I don't know if that's true, and even if it is, I am still not clear on what makes a toad a toad. I thought that toads were on land, and frogs were in the water, but this still looks more like a frog than a toad to me, and it was not in the water, although it was very dewy this morning. Anyway, it is pretty exciting that I have seen two amphibians in one week!

Random Bugs:

 Hopper

 Small milkweed bug, on extremely dry and shriveled milkweed leaf

 Another small milkweed bug, about to take off from some goldenrod

 Praying mantis

I came across this little struggle:

 It is not what it may first appear. The big, red ant is not attacking the small, black ant. The big, red ant is dead, and the small, black ant is dragging it away.

 Unfortunately, it got stuck among these leaves.

 Milkweed leaf beetle, what are you doing on my Brussels sprouts?

 Cabbage white caterpillar, I know what you are doing on my Brussels sprouts, and I don't like it!

 These moths have been congregating in groups on the front porch lately

 I have sometimes seen up to a dozen together.

 Assassin bug. They're everywhere

 Tiny looper caterpillar

Hoverfly

When I spotted this leaf, it took me a few seconds to realize why it looked weird (I was looking at it from a greater distance than this picture. Trust me, it looked weird, but it was no immediately evident why):

 These new hatchlings were each no more than a couple of millimeters long.

 It looks like after they hatched, they ate their eggs.

 I can't tell if they are caterpillars or other larvae, like sawflies. I can't tell how many prolegs they have.

The most astonishing thing about them is that when I went back to look at them a couple of hours later, every single one of them was gone.

In a way, this is a picture of insects, or it would be if we could see inside these gall on an oak tree.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I got distracted by a spider while trying to take a picture of the frog.

 I was walking down a path and saw this spider dangling in the air, and it quickly climbed up its thread to this branch several feet above my head.

 And then in less than a second it was suddenly dangling in front of my face again. I don't know why it did that, because if climbed right back up to the branch.