Five In Ten

I am sitting by an open window as I write this, enjoying the petrichor and the sound of crickets. Today was day 5 of our heat wave, but at least we have some relief in one respect from the hot, dry weather - it's raining now. Just barely, but it is lovely even as it falls in its desultory fashion.

Today I had only ten minutes to do a bug walk in the morning, and I quickly found some nice bugs. In that ten minutes I took almost a hundred pictures. I didn't find a lot of bugs in that ten minutes (five, to be exact - two minutes per bug find), and only covered a tiny portion of the yard - I went to where there are flowers blooming, because that is the best bet for finding bugs most of the time - but before I did that, I found a bug that flitted into view mere steps from the back door. I found a Backyard Bug of the Day, but after I posted it on facebook this evening I found another bug that had somehow sneaked into the house, and since that was one that I see very rarely, and get decent pictures of even more rarely, I had to go with Co-Bugs again today.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 This wonderfully Seussian insect is a katydid nymph. I think it is one of the most wonderful creatures I have ever seen. It is so outlandish and mismatched.

 It's quite small at this point, too. I don't know what kind of katydid it turns into, so I don't know how big it will ultimately get, but right now it's maybe 3/8 inch long, if that.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Ground beetle. They spend most of their time hiding somewhere on the ground (not underground, though, I don't think), so I don't see them often, and they are very shy, and fast, so when I do see them, I don't usually see them for long.

Unless they decide to play dead, which they sometimes do instead of fleeing.

Random Bugs:

 I spotted this butterfly right when I went outside, and after flitting around a bit it was kind enough to land so I could get some pictures.

 Not a lot of pictures, and not extremely close, and not of the dorsal side of its wings, but I think this is a pearl crescent butterfly, and I think this may be the first time I have ever gotten pictures of the ventral side of its wings, so there's that at least.

 Lady beetle

The flower longhorns were back on whatever this bush is, and there were a lot of them there, at least until I came along and most of them immediately flew away.

 I posted this one for the one underneath.

 They were pretty aggressive with each other.

Bee