A List

Here's what I found on my bug walk today:

Beetle
Caterpillar
Spider
Caterpillar
Spider
Spider
Butterfly
Bee
Beetle
Weevil
Aphids/Hopper/Ant (These were all together)
Spider
Moth
Spider
Spider
Beetle
Spider
Caterpillar
Spider
Hopper
Hopper
Beetle
Bug
Caterpillar
Larva
Butterfly
Spider
Fly
Katydid
Spider
Fly
Katydid
Springtail
Beetle
?
Bug
Bug
Bug
Beetle
Caterpillar
Spider
Spider

Which is to say, I found a lot of spiders today. And a lot of caterpillars. Actually, that's a pretty impressive list overall, considering this is really just the list of the things I took pictures of. Otherwise it would say Fly, Fly, Fly, Fly, Fly...

You may be wondering about the "?" That would be the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 When I first spotted this I thought it was an ant, and wasn't going to give it a second look, but that snout caught my eye and I had to look closer. It looks a bit like Gonzo the Great from The Muppets. Or like a cross between an ant and an elephant. At first I was sure this was something new for me, but now I am wondering if I have seen it before in an adult stage, because this looks a bit like a species of assassin bug, but not exactly. So I don't know.

It definitely has the mouth parts of a Hemiptera.

All right, on to the rest of that list of insects (and arachnids)! I think tonight I will just post them in the order that I took the pictures (except for putting the spiders at the end) - although I am not going to post them all, because some of the pictures didn't come out well. I have actually found a few more bugs since I started this post, because some cool bugs were attracted to the porch light tonight.

Random Bugs:

 Caterpillar. This was tiny, the kind of tiny where you don't even know if you're looking at a caterpillar, or if the edge of the leaf is just dried out. I am hoping this sticks around in the same spot for a while so I can see what it looks like when it gets bigger.

 Caterpillar that is doomed.

That's a LOT of parasite eggs for such a small caterpillar.

 You may have noticed that I haven't posted many bees lately. Actually, I don't know if I have posted any bees lately. That is because there haven't been many bees around, which may be because I have been doing my bug walks fairly late in the day, and bees are more fond of the sunny, earlier parts of the day. But here's a bee.

 Weevil

 So many bugs here - a hopper, and a whole lot of aphids, with one of the ants that is attending to them all.

 Moth

 Forest tent caterpillar

 Hopper

 Beetle

 Some sort of immature Hemiptera. I am guessing some sort of leaf bug.

 Caterpillar.

 Here's another caterpillar like the one yesterday, but the colors are kind of different, mostly the brownish red. Other than color, it looks a lot like the caterpillar just above.

 Sawfly larva

 European skipper

Katydid nymph

 Another katydid nmyph

 Can you see the springtails on this flower?

 One of them hopped away, but here's the other.

 Tiny beetle on the book I was reading on the back porch after my bug walk.

 I forget what this is called, but it's a Hemiptera that feeds on grass seeds.

 Different Hemiptera that feeds on grass seeds

 Immature Hemiptera feeding on grass seeds

 My husband came home with a stowaway on his collar.

 I transferred it to a tree. This looks a lot like the yoga caterpillar (THAT'S NOT ITS REAL NAME! DON'T GO THINKING THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A YOGA CATERPILLAR JUST BECAUSE YOU SAW IT ON THE INTERNET!), which I think is a copper underwing moth. But I haven't actually looked at the two to compare them. The yoga one was not there today, not that I could see, though it is basically the same color as the leaves it was feeding on.

 I think this is a robber fly. You can barely see this, but it has another bug in its mouth.

For some reason the back porch light doesn't usually attract a lot of bugs, but tonight it did. I didn't take pictures of most of them, because the non-descript little moths weren't all that photogenic, but here's a few...

 Visitor on the screen door - a cockroach. Not one of the kitchen invader kinds, one of the eat-dead-leaves-in-the-woods kind. This was on the storm door.

 Moth on the storm door.

 Fish fly

I have a few more spiders to add to the tally for the last three days, although not all of these are new sightings for the time period. I just counted them - 7 new species today, so that brings the total for the three days to 20 species of spiders! That's a lot to appreciate. Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This spider was very protective of this folded up leaf. I am guessing it has laid eggs in there. It is a new species for the week (well, for this three day period in which I am counting spider species. You get the idea).

I think this is the same kind of spider. It is one of my favorites, though it shows to best advantage on a branch or twig where it can blend in. The way it stretches its legs out in front of it, when it is on a branch it is very well camouflaged. Not so much here, or on the folded leaf above.

 Funnel web - another new one for the week.

 Another new one...

This one was very fond of the drop-off-the-leaf-attached-to-a-thread method of escaping the camera.

 Here's the bowl and doily spider from the other day.

 Another new one - a crab spider

 Another new one - don't know what this one is.

 Another crab spider, missing a couple of legs. That seems to be a very common problem for crab spiders these days.

 I posted this one just because the reflections of the ring flash on its thorax look like a skull. Or vaguely Darth Vaderish.

 Six-spotted orb weaver

 I think I spotted this one yesterday.

 Spiders are not often among the insects attracted to the porch light, but given how many other bugs are, you'd think they would be there just for the easy hunting. I think this is a new one for the week.