Vacation

I am "on vacation" this week, but we haven't gone away, we just go out and do things and come back home. Staycationing, as they say. What it means in terms of my bug walks is that they are not being done during the usual window of time of early afternoonish. I did actually look around at the rock garden today during the afternoon before we went out, and was surprised not to see anything other than a few ants. I have learned a lot of things about bugs from this project, and mostly what I have learned is that I don't understand them at all. I think the sunny, warmest part of the day is when the rock garden will be most buzzing with activity, because that's what happens every other day, and today, it is practically vacant. So basically, bugs are predictable, except when they are not.

Anyway, I did do a bug walk today, I think around 6:00 in the evening. I know I sound like a broken record, but I didn't find many bugs. I think if I looked at every bug I have seen in the last 2 months it would be a pretty decent list, but on any given day there just seems to be a dearth of insects. Well, nature is still trying to wake up. It has stopped hitting the snooze alarm, but it is still lying in bed staring at the ceiling.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Hoverfly

Random Bugs:

 I almost didn't see this stinkbug - when I walked by the tree, it looked like it was just an uneven spot on the bark.

 

I have posted pictures of winter fireflies before, but when I saw this one, I knew I had to get a picture of it. Why?

 Because I can actually see its head. Most of the time when I see winter fireflies, they are just sitting on the trunk of a tree. Occasionally I will see one walking around. But either way, they almost always have their heads tucked under their prontum, which in the case of the winter firefly is that semi-circular, multi-colored thing, but in beetles in general is a shield-ish thing that covers their thorax (the middle of the three body segments, the other two being the head, which is obviously the front, and the abdomen, which is the back end). So it is quite a rare thing for me to actually see its head.

 Usually they look like this. This is the point where the firefly decided it didn't want to have its picture taken, and it tucked its head under its prontum.

 This is when it poked its head out to see if I had gone away yet. I hadn't.