Envy

I suffer from Insect Envy. It can be triggered by knowing that there are people who live in places with blue morpho butterflies, when I don't. It can be triggered by looking through bug books and seeing really cool bugs and finding out that they don't live in my part of the world, or by seeing that they do live in my part of the world, and I just have never seen one (like stick bugs). I envy anyone who has found a stick bug - even though I did see one once, but I want one to be in my backyard. And I envy people who are finding cooler bugs in their backyards than I am finding in mine. For instance, I follow a New England insect group on facebook where people post pictures of the insects they find (in New England, specifically), and someone posted a picture the other day of a bunch of interesting beetles she found on a tree stump that was oozing sap. I have a tree trunk oozing sap in my backyard, and it is often covered in bugs, but they are ants, flies, and gnats. No cool beetles that I have never seen before. But I did spot this on the stump today:

 Okay, it's not colorful. But it is a beetle (I almost wrote beatle), so at least it's something other than an ant or a fly. But I still have Insect Envy.

When I have attacks of this I have to remind myself of the awesome bugs I do have in my backyard, like blue azure butterflies, and candy striped leaf hoppers (I see them all the time now, but I was pretty blown away the first time I saw one), and six spotted tiger beetles. Who cares if there are tiger beetles that are even more amazing than the six spotted tiger beetle, and other people have them in their backyards (okay, I do). At least I have cool insects in my backyard, and I am doing what I can to attract them, and don't spray my lawn with chemicals to kill them. Oh, and fireflies. I have fireflies (in the summer. Well, I have winter fireflies right now, but they don't light up, so, not all that exciting). There are some places in the world, some places on this continent even, that don't have fireflies. So there is a lot to be thankful for in my backyard.

But I still want to see a stick bug.

Before we get along to the rest of today's bugs, a beautiful bit of springtime:

First bloom on the flowering crab apple

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I am still not clear on the difference between wasps and bees, so I don't know which this is, but I do have a huge new book about bees, called The Bees In Your Backyard, and I tried to look it up. I didn't find it, which could mean it's not a bee, and could mean it's just not in this book because there are about 20,000 different species of bees, and they're not all in the book, I don't think. I did find a few that looked similar, and they were in the family Megachilidae, which is a really cool name, so I hope that's what this is. I happened to read a bit of a page about identifying species of Antidium, which are in the family Megachilidae (I don't know what their classification is - group? I need to look up that menmonic about Prince Phillip, or whatever it is... Okay, there are a lot of them. Here's my new favorite: Dumb King Phillip Could nOt Find Green Socks. I don't think it's very good, because it uses the word not for Order, but I like the bit about the green socks. Anyway... I think Antidium is a Genus, because Genus comes after Family. Moving on...). Within one sentence I realized that I am never going to be one of those people who are good at identifying insects, because it talks about the lack of an arolium between the front tarsal claws. This is not a level of detail I am going to see on insects. It's not a level I am going to get with my camera in most cases. So... this might be a bee, and it might be in the family Megachilidae, and it might be in the genus Antidium.

 It is definitely cool looking.

 It also moved around really fast. Taking pictures of insects is not easy.

I found other beetles (Order Coleoptera. There, I am showing off) besides the one on the tree stump. Before I started paying attention to insects, I never thought of beetles as being a bug (yes, I know, they are insects, but they are not bugs) you would find in a flower, but lots of beetles are attracted to flowers:

 Click beetles also seem to be attracted to rocks. I have been finding them on rocks lately.

Here's a bug. A True Bug.

 I don't know what kind it is, but it is a bug.

 I sometimes wonder about the sexual dimorphism in insects. I can see why the females in a lot of species are bigger, since their bodies have to produce eggs. But why do these two have different size heads?

 

 Springtail on a violet. Seriously, sometimes it really does feel like I can't NOT take pictures of bugs. I just wanted a picture of the violet.

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

Jumping spider

I couldn't decide which of the following three pictures was the best, so here's all three:

 

 Mites