Matching Suits

I had a blog topic as I was walking around the backyard today, but I have forgotten it, so... let's just look at pictures, shall we?

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 Cedar waxwing

 Performing some acrobatics. Actually, I think it was trying to break off this vine, maybe to build a nest?

Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day #1:

 I have chosen two Backyard Bugs of the Day today because I found two that were new to me. One is this caterpillar, that, being lazy, and having just spent an hour and a half loading pictures only to have my browser flunk out on me, not having the time, I didn't look it up. At first glance I thought it was just another dried up gypsy moth caterpillar, as there have been a few that have died on the trunks of trees (killed by a virus or a fungus, I figure from my reading), but looking closer (and why do I look closer at what I think are dead caterpillars? I don't know, but sometimes it pays off), I realized it is something else, and something I have not seen.

 Caterpillar Close-up

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Both of today's Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day have the same basic color scheme. This one is also a new species for me, I think. I don't know what it is, other than it is a Hemiptera, and it looks like it is wearing a tuxedo. Or maybe more like a morning suit (and yes, I meant to write morning, not mourning. Totally different thing). Very handsome.

Random Bugs:

 Hopper nymph

 Beetle on daisy fleabane

 That larva from last week again. It's still almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but I do think it has gotten a little bit bigger.

 

 The above picture, zoomed in. This is the clearest look at its head that I have had, which is partly why I think it has gotten bigger.

 On a different tree today, though it could be the same specimen, because it was nearby.

 Two candy striped leaf hoppers and a red milkweed beetle on milkweed.

 Bee

 Caterpillar - possibly false unicorn? Still having trouble finding this one.

 

 Bee and beetle on sumac

Here is a strange thing, found under strange circumstances. We were going out this afternoon and this dropped onto the windshield of the car:

 It looks like a pupa. It wiggles when disturbed - and it was definitely disturbed as it squirmed on the windshield, leaving a trail of something as it slid downward.

 It does not look well. I wonder if it was attacked by something in the tree above the car, and that is why it fell.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 This is that species of spider that drags the ants away.