Summertime

Happy Summer Solstice! That is, if you are reading this in the northern hemisphere. Today is the first day of astronomical summer. And there's a full moon, too, which apparently is the first time the full moon has occurred on the summer solstice in 70 years. It's clouding up, though, so unless the moon clears the trees before the clouds finish covering the sky, I am not going to see it [Edit - I did]. I did spend some time outside watching the fireflies, though, which is the most summery thing I can think of.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I have yet to figure out what this is a nymph of, but I think they are amazing. Some kind of hopper or other Hemiptera.

 There will often be several of them on the same stem. Each bit of fuzz in the background of this picture is another one.

Random Bugs:

 Fly

 Some kind of Hemiptera nymph

 Moth

 

 Closer look

This was an interesting tableau. An assassin bug feeding on prey, a spittle bug on a leaf nearby (upper right), and another tiny Hemiptera on the same leaf as the assassin. As long as the assassin is feeding, the other little bug is safe.

 That looks like a beetle that the assassin is feeding on. You can see its proboscis, through which it feeds. I assumed at first that the little bug was some kind of leaf bug, but looking at it I wonder if it is also insectivorious, and wanted to get in on that beetle meal.

 Another Hemiptera that I don't know.

 Fly

 Fly

 This was a surprising find for me - an ambush bug. I don't think I have ever seen one so early in the summer before. I say that not because I have any idea when they are active, but because all of the flowers where I usually see them - purple coneflowers, balloon flowers, and goldenrod, are nowhere near blooming yet.

 Sawfly larvae

 Aphids

Arachnid Appreciation:
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I saw what I thought was a tiny scrap of dried vegetation hanging from the bottom of a leaf. It was moving, in a kind of jerky way that did not correspond with the breeze. I couldn't figure out what was making it move, and figured there was some kind of bug under the leaf pulling on it somehow. Well, it turns out that the bit of dried vegetation was this spider, and it was moving on its own.