I am not one of those people who love autumn. I love spring - the weather is basically the same as autumn, but in reverse - getting nicer instead of colder. And spring has gorgeous colors, too - pinks, and reds, and so many shades of green. I am not a big fan of yellow, and I hate orange. So I don't like the fall color scheme. And then there is that shortening of days in the fall, where every day it gets dark earlier (the worst day being the end of daylight savings, even if you do get an extra hour of sleep, or whatever you use that hour for). And what I noticed today, which you probably only notice if you have a lot of trees around your house like I do, is that the sunny part of the day ends sooner. It's kind of stupid that I never noticed this before - yes, I have noticed that the sun sets earlier, duh, but I never noticed before that it is much earlier that the yard falls into shadow. It gets dark in the backyard way before sunset, from a photography point of view. And it's not like in summer when you WANT shade, because you're too hot in the sun. When you have a chill in the air, like today, the sunshine is glorious.
Anyway, most of the backyard was in the shade when I did my bug walk today, and so it was hard to get pictures of some of the bugs - partly because my ring flash is still broken. If I had that then I would be able to use it as a light. As it is, in some cases it was basically too dark for me to focus on the bugs, which makes it hard to get good pictures even if the camera can be set so there is enough light coming in to get the shot.
Anyway...
Backyard Bug of the Day:
This thing was curled up so tightly that I could not tell if it was a caterpillar or some other kind of larva. I was thinking that this was something new for me, that I had not seen before, but the more I look at it, the more I think I have seen one at some point in the last four summers. At this point I have seen so many bugs it is hard to remember them all.
What's cool about it is that it practically glows. Unfortunately, the aforementioned problem of it being too dark to get a good focus came into play with these pictures.
Random Bugs:
More caterpillars...
I would love to know what is going on in those tiny caterpillar brains...
Obviously these caterpillars haven't heard that the planking trend ended a couple of years ago.
And why it would twist itself around like this I don't know...
Not hungry today.
Hopper
This is the best picture I have ever taken of a lace bug. Note that it is in the sunny part of the yard, which made it easier.
This is also the first time I have ever seen a lace bug flex its elytra. Unfortunately, I missed my opportunity for a first time seeing a lace bug fly, because it took off and made the jump to light speed while I was adjusting the camera.
Nice blending
I don't know what kind of bug this is - maybe some kind of stinkbug, but I don't think so. Anyway, it's a Hemiptera.
Cricket
No photographable spiders today...
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