Posers

I talk a lot about bugs being uncooperative, which is unfair anthropomorphism, really - they are generally programmed to avoid things that might eat them, and they have no idea that my camera and I are not insectivores, so they are wisely cautious. I do tell them that I don't intentionally eat insects (because everyone eats them accidentally on occasion - especially if you are into cycling), but they don't speak my language, and so that never really sways them. I cajole them sometimes, too, but that hardly ever has an affect. However, today I found two bugs that are generally elusive that for some reason decided to be especially cooperative. The one that was the most cooperative is today's Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Dragonfly. This might be a female twelve-spotted skimmer, but even if I am correct that it is a skimmer, according to Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America, there are over 100 species of skimmers, and the book shows about a dozen. So while this definitely looks like the picture of the female twelve spotted skimmer that is in the book, I don't know if there are others that look like this, too.

I am basing the identification on the body colors and the wing pattern. Well, also the body shape, which is why I looked among the skimmers in the book.

 Actually, the funny thing about dragonflies in terms of photography is that they either won't cooperate at all (most of the time) or they are really cooperative.

 

 This one was really cooperative.

 The dragonfly posed for me on various locations in the backyard, some natural, and some things like tomato cages in the garden. I read somewhere once that if you want dragonflies in your yard you should have things for them to perch on, about 3 feet high. They used to really like the stakes we used in our garden. In this picture it is on a wooden post/stake that the garden fence is attached to. It landed here, and I took a few pictures, and then it took off and flew in a circle and landed again, and as I came in close for pictures of its face it looked like it was chewing. I think the reason it had taken off was to catch some prey, and it landed to finish eating it.

 Drama shot

The second most cooperative bug in the backyard today was another usually-elusive one, a butterfly:

 

I think this is a great spangled fritillary, but it turns out there are a lot more fritillaries than I realized, and some of them look more similar than I realized. I also didn't get a good look at the dorsal side of the wings, which I would need to have a picture of for identification. But for now I am calling this a great spangled fritillary.

Tiny glimpse of the dorsal side of the wing

A view of the curly tongue

As butterflies go, I would say that the great spangled fritillary is possibly the most cooperative. Or one of the most, anyway.

Random Bugs:

 There was a bit of a color theme going on with the bugs in the backyard today. You can see it in the dragonfly and the butterfly, and here: brown, black, and orange. Those colors were everywhere.

 A couple of borers on a tree branch

Closer look at one of the borers.

Different species of borer.

 Woodwasp

On the same branch later in the day were two different species of Ichnuemon wasps, which are parasitic wasps that lay their eggs in the eggs of other insects.

 

 

 I saw this Hemiptera on a gypsy moth caterpillar. I think the caterpillar may have been dead. I don't know what kind of Hemiptera this was, but I think it may have been feeding on the caterpillar.

 Assassin bug

I spotted these two lady beetles under a leaf. Of course when I tried to get a good look at them, they both crawled away...

 Love the blue/green eyes.

 Long legged fly

 Beetle

 Moth

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I accidentally damaged this spider's web by walking into it with my face. So many spiders build webs, or at least string threads, across paths at the height of my face. For several reasons I wish they would not do this - well, two reasons, mainly. I don't like wrecking their webs, and I don't like walking into spiderwebs face first. In this case I didn't destroy it, though, and the spider didn't appear bothered by it.

I think some of these following might be new species for the... month, now? Well, it hasn't been a month that I have been - or was - counting spider species in the backyard. And I am not counting anymore. But I think I have found at least 30.