More Drama

I'm too tired to think of anything interesting to say about the bugs today. I did two bug walks - one in the morning when it was still pretty chilly, and one in the early evening when it was... well, still pretty chilly, but not as chilly as the morning. Today never did get very warm. Sad to say, the best bug I found today was on my bike ride, a tiger swallowtail butterfly, but since it was not in my backyard, I can't include it. It does make me think, however, that the tiger swallowtail chrysalis I have been watching over since last fall might eclose soon.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Case bearing caterpillar. Much larger than the ones I saw in the fall. I wonder if they overwinter as caterpillars, and in the spring go back to eating and growing before pupating. Or maybe it's just a different species.

This is not a dead bug:

 It is, however, a stupid bug. It was caught between the screen and the storm glass on the storm door, and even when I tried to get it out, it appeared to prefer being stuck, even though it was writhing around in there like it was uncomfortable. I did manage to release it, eventually.

 I saw a lot of flies today - here's one.

 This cranefly landed right next to me while I was taking pictures of the case bearing caterpillar.

Today all of the drama came from the spiders. Arachnid Appreciation:
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This spider was on the car window - on the inside - as we were driving home this morning. I had opened the window a little bit before I noticed it, and it crawled up to the top of the window and spent most of the ride home riding on the top of the window glass. This meant I could not close the window, because I didn't want to crush it. And then when we got home, it moved into the groove where the window closes, so I still couldn't close the window. When we went out again the afternoon it was on the rear view mirror, as you see here. After I took this picture it jumped onto my camera. I transferred it to a plant next to the driveway.

 So, I was looking at this spider on its web, when it suddenly zoomed out of my camera frame. Spiders sometimes just flee to the edges of their webs to escape the camera, but I followed it with the lens and realized...

 ... a small fly had gotten caught in the web.

 The spider wrapped it in a bit of silk (I assume it envenomated it first)...

 ... and began to mosey back to the center of the web...

... and then suddenly zoomed away again.

 Another fly had flown into the web. This one got away, though (see the first fly, the blurry blob on the right). Out of focus because it happened fast and the web was moving.

 Then it went back to the center of the web. Huge pedipalps - must be a male.