Three

They say good things come in threes, and I have an example of that: after not seeing any toads or frogs for months I have now seen three in the last week or so. Three different species, too.

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 My mother, who is visiting, saw what we presume was this toad hop under the back porch yesterday evening, and then I saw it hop out this morning.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think this is actually a new species for me. They are rare finds for me these days, but I do sometimes come across something new, and it is pretty exciting that after four years of observing the bugs in my backyard I can still find things I have not seen before. And yet, there could be thousands of species in the backyard at any moment that I have never seen before. Okay, thousands might be pushing it, but there are still probably a lot of things living in my backyard that I have never yet laid eyes on. Maybe a stick bug... Anyway, this one was new for me. I looked it up and it might be something called Masked Hunter, so called because the nymphs cover themselves with stuff to mask themselves from hunting. It is a Hemiptera, which I guessed because it looks a lot like other Hemiptera, even though I couldn't see its mouth parts.

Random Bugs:

 Lots of bees again today. Busy, busy bees.

 I think this caterpillar has molted again. It spent another couple of days not moving on this leaf (a new one it moved to after it ate its previous leaf), and today looked bigger and less spiky; you may remember that after its last molt it was looking very spiky and had spiky protrusions behind its head. Now it looks smooth and the protrusions are gone.

 I think this should be called the Argyle Caterpillar because of the pattern on the back. I'll try to get a better picture of it tomorrow if it's still there.

Speaking of good things coming in threes, that's how many bugs I had for you today.

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

I always wonder when I find really tiny spiders if they are a really small species, or if they are just really young members of species that gets bigger.

Sorry, I don't have three spiders for you. And yes, I do think that spiders are good things. But you already knew that.