Something's Missing

It is sometimes harder to notice the absence of something than the presence of something. Obviously, you see what is there, but when something should be there, but isn't, it doesn't always register that you are missing something. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess. I have noticed the lack of grasshoppers this year, but that's mainly because there are a few of them around, just not as many as there should be. But it has taken me a while to notice that I am not seeing aphids around the yard anymore. There were a whole lot of those red ones a few months ago, but I realized today that I haven't seen an aphid in weeks - and not just because I was in the hospital. I mean I don't think I have seen any since I got home, and even before I went in, I saw a couple flying, but they are not all over the trees and other plants like they should be. I am, of course, attributing this to the lack of rain - aphids suck the juices out of plants, and if the plants are not getting water, maybe they are lacking in the fluids that the aphids consume. And of course, with no aphids, you don't have the bugs that eat the aphids. And the bugs that eat the bugs that eat the aphids. And so on, and so forth, and that's why I am not finding as many bugs this year. Because it never rains.

There is no Backyard Bug of the Day today. I have a few pictures of bugs to post, but they are all bugs that have been Backyard Bug of the Day recently, so I don't want to repeat them now, not without a spectacularly interesting picture, which I don't have. So, just random bugs today, and not many of them. And some spiders, too.

I do have a Backyard Bird of the Day:

Yes, I know she's hard to see. But I am not fast enough with the camera to have gotten a picture of her when she was hovering three feet away from my head. I believe this is probably a female ruby throat.

Random Bugs:

 White hickory tussock moth caterpillar

 Assassin bug

 Ambush bugs

 There's a butterfly in this picture. A cabbage white.

 Half a bug is better than none? I don't usually post pictures of dead bugs, but this is the only net winged beetle I have seen this year.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I know in theory daddy-long-legs have eight legs, but I rarely see one that has the full complement.

 Wrapping up some prey

 Jumping spider