It's The Beetles!

Oops! Well, I didn't have a lot of time for a bug walk today, and now I don't have a lot of time to write this post, so let's get to the bugs!

A couple of days ago my bug finds were dominated by hoppers, which are in the order Hemiptera. Today's bugs were dominated by Coleoptera, or beetles. I have two Backyard Bugs of the Day, but maybe I should call them Backyard Bugs of the Night, because both of them were on the front porch when I got home this evening. Both are Coleoptera.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 I don't know what this is, but it's a fairly largish beetle by my backyard/front porch standards. There have definitely been bigger ones around, but this one was a respectable size, probably at least 3/4 of an inch long.

There was another one on the porch that was very similar, but I am not sure if they were the same kind. So this one is not BBotD #2...

This one is - Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2

 Firefly. It didn't light up, possibly because the light was on. I have never seen a firefly attracted to the porch light before. If you've been reading this blog for a while you might think this looks a lot like the winter fireflies, and it is similar, but it is not the same kind. In looking it up, the closest I can come for identification is that it is probably in the genus Photinus.

Another beetle

 

What's better than a blue bug? Two blue bugs! Male and female honeysuckle borers. Which are Coleoptera. They look like they are slightly different colors, but I don't know if that was true, or just a trick of the light.

 Bad picture, but I am trying to make a point about the abundance of beetles today. I think this is a species of flower longhorn beetle.

 Another beetle, quite tiny.

 Not a beetle! This is a Hemiptera of some kind. Possibly a leaf bug?

And the Lepidoptera were well represented...

 

 Pretty, but uncooperative moth

 

 I have no idea what this is, besides some kind of larva.

 

 It is one of the creepiest things I have ever seen in my backyard. That wider end seems to latch onto the plant, and then the other end flails about. It is sort of like a caterpillar, and sort of not.

Speaking of things that are sort of like caterpillars, but not caterpillars...

 

 Sawfly larvae. These were pretty big, so big that I can't believe I didn't notice them before this.

Along with the two Backyard Bugs of the Day, there were quite a number of other bugs on the front porch this evening when I got home:

 A lot of tiny moths, including these two...

 ... and this one.

 Moth and hopper

 Moth

I found something quite interesting for Arachnid Appreciation:

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 I found this spider on its web; I've shown you these before.

 Later I found another web with the same kind of spider (lower left, just above some of its prey), and have seen this particular one on this web for the last few days. But today there was another spider on the web (upper right), that at first looked like a totally different kind of spider.

 But when I looked at it closer, I saw that it had a very similar abdomen shape, although smaller and a different color. So I think that this may be a male of the same species.

 I did not see them interact at all, although he was moving around a bit. However, whatever he was doing was obviously not something that made her attack him, because she didn't move. Her web was pretty ragged today, though. I wonder how things played out between them when it came time for her to build a new web...