Seasonal Milestones

First, the big news: When I was outside for my sky time this evening I saw my first firefly of the season. That is the earliest I have seen one in the last couple of years, and I only saw one, so they are not out in force yet. I love fireflies. They seem like magic to me. Also, I am sitting here with the window open (though I am going to close it in a minute, because it's getting chilly out there, and therefore in here), and I am listening to crickets. I forgot to mention yesterday, because I was whining and talking about hoppers, that I heard a cricket for the first time this year yesterday afternoon. I only heard the one then, and I have seen a cricket before now, but yesterday was the first cricket music of the summer.

Of course, it's only natural (ha!) that the sights and sounds of summer should have arrived, because the summer temperatures have arrived. I don't know what the high was today, but I saw it at 91ºF at one point. Mind you, two days ago the high was in the mid 60s. I waited until late afternoon to do my bug walk, when the temperature had dropped into the high 80s, because I am not ready for this level of hot (actually, I never like it to be this hot). I figured I might as well because not only would it be cooler and shadier, but the bugs don't really seem to like really hot weather, either. They all go into hiding in the hottest part of the day. And you know how frustrated I would get if I couldn't find any bugs.

Speaking of which, there was a bit of reaffirming serendipity on the internet today. I believe I have mentioned that I follow an Insects of New England group on facebook; today one of the moderators of the group posted a picture with the caption that he had experienced "a frustrating bug hunt," today, due to "uncooperative bugs," and his own (by his estimation) poor photography skills. However, in the end he was rewarded by finding a species of butterfly he has not seen in 12 years - though he has been looking for every spring.

Then a friend of mine posted an article about how to avoid frustration - I don't know if it was a coincidence, or if he read my blog, and was offering me advice in an oblique way. Anyway, apparently my problem is my unreasonable expectations. I am unreasonable to expect to find bugs, and to expect them to sit quietly and let me take their picture. But I think that is only partly true - I do expect to find bugs, but I don't really expect them to sit still for me. However, I do WANT them to sit still for me, and it is frustrating to not get what I want, even if I don't expect it. Maybe it is the persistence that is the problem - you spend your whole life being told that if you work hard for something you will attain it, so when I spend ten minutes standing on one foot with my head in a thorn bush, trying to get a bug in focus, and then it flies away the second that I have my shot set up, well, I think a little bit of frustration is justified! It is possible that I am too stubborn for psychology... On the other hand, I no longer expect all of the photos to load properly when I am writing this blog, so I no longer get frustrated by it - there could be something to this... And it does dovetail nicely with my philosophy that low expectations are the key to happiness.

Anyway, I didn't have any sewing to do today, so I was in a better mood, and able to accept the vagaries of insect behavior with greater equanimity.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I am pretty sure this is a new one for me. I don't know what it is beyond the fact that it appears to be a nymph, and it is a Hemiptera.

 You can see the proboscis in this shot - Hemiptera mouth parts, in other words.

 This little creature was an amazingly fast runner, and so, so, so bright red.

Random Bugs:

 I think this may be a species of Ichnemon wasp. I think it is a female, and that skinny, threadlike thing sticking out of the back end is her ovipositor. What was interesting about her was that she was waving her ovipositor around. I have posted a few pictures of her so you can see that the ovipositor was in motion - but what I did not see her do with it was deposit any eggs.

However, there was some ovipositing going on on that branch:

 This is the same branch where I have seen these woodwasps laying eggs most of this week. There were several there today.

 I only found one hopper today.

 I think this is some kind of flower fly, not a bee.

 Lady beetle, it might be the one with the charming name of twice stabbed lady beetle, but apparently there are a couple that look like this.

 This is a really big ant. Compare with the small ant on the other side of the twig. Yes, the small ant is farther away from the camera, but not that far.

 A favorite of mine, though I don't know what kind it is, and it's not in my book (which is another thing - I no longer expect to find the bugs I am looking for in my bug book, so I don't get frustrated that I can't find them. I also don't usually bother to try to look them up for that reason). This one looked greener than usual, though its color changed depending on the angle I looked at it from. But usually these are more blue than green, and this one was more green than blue. I don't know if that is individual variation, a different species, or just personal perception.

 Can you see the mite in this shot?

 Cricket

 Weevil

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 You may be wondering why its web is so messy...

 

 I think that is a combination of flower-seed fuzz and pollen. That's the problem with having something sticky for catching bugs. It will catch other things.

 Female spider with egg sac. That seems to me an awkward place to carry it, but she was able to scurry pretty fast, so it must work for her.