Ups and Downs

As you may have surmised after my coneflower tirade yesterday, I have been kind of frustrated with bug searching lately. All summer, in fact. After last summer, when I felt there were not as many bugs around as there should have been, there have been even fewer this year. I went out today feeling pre-defeated in my search, but then, within steps of the back porch found a few things that fueled my optimism.

I found a brand-new (to me and my backyard) species for Backyard Bug of the Day:

 

  This is a red-headed bush cricket. I have never seen one before, but it is very likely that I have heard one before; Kaufman's Field Guide to North American Insects says that it is common in the eastern part of the country, and that it has a "surprisingly loud, high-pitched trill," that can be heard from "low shrubs, grasses, and short trees." It's a pretty small cricket, as crickets go. I didn't get any really good pictures of it, so I am going to post several so you can get a look at various features of it. First, note the palps, which are those things sticking out from its face that look like antennae with knobs on the end. Those are not the antennae. Kaufman's FGtNAI also says, "The palps, looking like little boxing gloves, are in perpetual motion when the insect is excited." It was pretty excited about having its picture taken, because those palps were moving. Unfortunately, so was the rest of the cricket, which is why I didn't get any really good pictures.

 You can see the antennae better here.

 I love the patterns on crickets

Second amazing thing I found right outside today:

 This is the first scorpionfly I have seen all year.

Third amazing thing I have seen all year:

 This probably doesn't look all that amazing, but it is amazing to be because I have had these flowers in my little flowerbed by the side of the house for a few years, and I don't think I have ever seen a bee on them. It has been a great mystery to me why these flowers never attract any bees. In fact, they hardly ever attract any bugs at all, except for ants and the occasional katydid. And here's a bee on these flowers (I can't remember the name of them... autumn something...), which are called autumn joy sedum (and thank you to my cousin Sharon for the id).

After that, the finding of three cool things within ten feet of the back door, my bug walk was pretty much a bust. I took fewer than 70 pictures today, and about half of them were of the cricket. On the bright side, I did find two new species in the last couple of days, and that is always a thrill.

And one amphibian:

Hard to see little toad. Not cooperative.

Random Bugs:

 There were even fewer of these caterpillars around today.

 Assassin bug with prey

 Eastern tiger swallowtail, male, missing about half of one of its hind wings.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 You're really going to have to look for this one. I know that the pictures I take never give a good idea of scale, but what you need to know here is, these are small flowers. That is a small bee. So when you find the spider, realize that it is TINY.

I think you can see it a little better here.

Lonely Flowers

There's something wrong in my backyard this summer.

 These are purple coneflowers. If you were to ask me how to attract bugs to your backyard, I would tell you to plant milkweed and purple coneflowers. Bugs LOVE purple coneflowers. They attract bees, butterflies, beetles, spiders, wasps, ambush bugs, caterpillars, hoppers, springtails... so many kinds of insects and arachnids. I have had more coneflowers blooming in my backyard this year than ever before, and for a while, they at least attracted a lot of butterflies. Most of them are past their prime, but these two, and a couple of others, are newly blooming. And what do you see on them? Do you see bees? Do you see butterflies? Do you see any arthropods of any kinds? No. You can't see it in the picture, but there was one spider thread reaching from one petal to another. But there were no spiders lying in wait for prey under the petals. There was no ambush bug waiting to grab any unsuspecting insect that landed too close. There were no tiny, black, round beetles digging in the center of the flower. No bugs. At all. And not just today - there haven't been bugs on these flowers - any of the coneflowers - for a while. Yes, and occasional one, but these flowers should be teeming with insects! And there should be spiders waiting there to feed on them! But the coneflowers are bereft of bugs!

I think it's because of the drought. I think the flowers are too dry because of a lack of rain, so they don't have enough nectar for the bugs. But this is just a guess - or a hypothesis.

And speaking of plants with no bugs on them, my hypothesis about the caterpillar yesterday was wrong. Here is the last remaining leaf on that sapling, not folded around a caterpillar. There was no caterpillar at all on the plant today. I didn't see it on any of the surrounding plants, either. Thus endeth my fascination with the black-etched prominent moth caterpillars.

Okay, how about some bugs that WERE there today? Backyard Bug of the Day:

 This is some kind of green Geometer moth, but in my book the one it looks like is the Southern Emerald, which it says lives in the south. This is not the south, so I don't know if this is a moth that is not where it belongs, or if it is something that is not in the book. Anyway, it's a geometer moth.

More or less in the order in which I took them, here are Random Bugs:

 Assassin

 Grasshopper

 White hickory tussock moth. I was going to make these Backyard Bug of the Day because of their sheer numbers - I spotted at least ten of them on one of the crab apple trees. This one and the next were on other trees - they were all over the backyard.

 

 Three of the ten caterpillars on the crab apple tree

 

 Insect-spotting eye test

 Can you see it now?

 Cricket hiding between two leaves

 Wasp

A small copper butterfly finally let me get a shot of the dorsal side of its wing!

 Not that it was completely cooperative.

I think this is some kind of tachinid fly.

The purple coneflowers may not be attractive to bugs at the moment, but the garden shed is. In addition to still being full of moths, and the wasps' nest, when I opened it today, there were several crickets on the doors:

 I think this is a female (above) and male.

And I think these are two females - see the long thing sticking out the back? I think those are ovipositors.

 There was one on top of the door, too.

 Hopper

 Ladybug

 The Backyard Bug of the Day had company on the front porch this evening.

 This is the kind of moth that has taken over the shed. This one is on the porch.

 I found this moth by almost running over it with the lawnmower. You can't see what was most interesting about it, which is that when it flew away from the mower, it was white underneath.

Katydid - female, with ovipositor

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Funnel web spider. These are so shy it's maddening. I was lucky to get this shot before it scurried back into the tunnel part of its web. There is another one that I have been trying to photograph for three days without success.

Six-spotted orb weaver

You're probably thinking I put this picture in the wrong place, but there's a spider in there.

You know you're not really afraid of spiders when you peel back a leaf to see what's hiding under it, discover that it's a spider that is now about an inch from your hand, and you take a picture of it instead of screaming.

Crab spider with prey

Sticky Things

Well, I did it again - I procrastinated so long that now I have to hurry to get this done. But first...

There are some minor hazards involved in insect microphotography. There's the possibility of being stung, obviously, but there are also other things out in nature that you have to look out for. So before I step of the paths in my backyard to try to get close to an insect so I can take its picture, I look to make sure that I am not about to step into poison ivy, or be impaled by thorns (although, to be honest, I get jabbed by a lot of thorns anyway). I checked for those things today when I was intrepidly pursuing today's Backyard Bug of the Day, but what I didn't notice was that I was plowing right through a patch of burrs.

 Burrs aren't really a hazard, unless they get under your socks or something. But my legs were covered in them. I had to sit down on the stile and pull them all off. Still, there are worse ways to spend ten minutes.

Here's the Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Look! Burrs! I didn't notice those at the time.

 More burrs, and a spittle bug (I think). I was holding onto the end of the stem of burrs, and they even stuck to my fingers. That was weird and surprising.

Oh, I saw a monarch butterfly today. I don't know if it was my monarch butterfly, but I would guess that whatever butterfly laid the egg that became my butterfly also laid other eggs around the same time, so there are probably others around. I wish I had found more caterpillars, though. But I am happy that they are around.

Random Bugs:

Here's the last leaf on the caterpillars' sapling, and also the last caterpillar.

 But I did see one of the other caterpillars (probably the other one that was there yesterday) on a nearby vine. It was gone later when I looked. I don't know which is the one that was wrapped in a leaf yesterday, probably this one, but that leaf was gone today. I am guessing they do the leaf-wrapping thing for a day, then eat that leaf and leave the plant.

The last remaining caterpillar moved around on the sapling for the rest of the day.

It appeared to be eating the leaf stems. It never did eat that last leaf, though. I wonder if tomorrow I will find that leaf folded around this caterpillar. That is my current hypothesis.

Today was a day for uncooperative butterflies:

 See the two blue blurs? It's the lighter colored one.

 Here it is sitting on a leaf on the ground for a nanosecond, just to pretend it is going to let me take a picture. This was a tiny butterfly.

Flying away

 

 Can you spot the uncooperative butterfly in this one? (Not the same kind as above).

This one was alright, actually. Small copper.

I almost got a shot of the dorsal side of the wings...

This one was okay, too. I think it's a gray hairstreak red-banded hairstreak...

Look at the pretty blue wings you get a glimpse of as it moves its wings. I wish I could get a full look at the dorsal side, but they never pose that way for me.

And check out that tongue!

 Thick-headed fly

 Dragonfly

 Grasshopper. It has wings, so it's an adult. It's also missing one of its rear legs.

 Tree cricket

 Robber fly with a moth. The moth was still alive and moving.

 Moth eggs

 Spittle bug? Or some kind of hopper. Or both, I am not sure if spittle bugs are considered hoppers.

 Stinkbug. Note the proboscis that it is using to suck from the plant

 I think this is an assassin bug.

 Tumbling flower beetle

 Caterpillar. This was also uncooperative - after I took this picture it scooted on up the tree branch and out of my reach with the camera.

 Wasp

 Assassin bug looking the wrong way...

Here's the assassin... It's a nymph

... and here's the bug that was NOT its prey, a candy-striped leaf hopper

Long-legged fly

Honey bee. The one thing I am totally failing to give you an idea of lately is how many bees and wasps are around in the backyard. They are currently most attracted to the goldenrod, but they are in such a hurry to collect nectar that it is almost impossible to get a picture of one. But a single plant can have 6-10 species of bees and wasps on it at a time.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Jumping spider on the back door. It was on the inside of the door, but when I opened the door it moved to the outside.

Crab spider