Bugs of Home

Hello! I'm back, and so are the bugs! Actually, the bugs never left, it was just me. I was on vacation, and took a road trip about halfway across the country and back. The bugs stayed here - although, as you will see shortly, that's not really what happened with the bugs. As for me, I saw a lot of cool bugs on my trip. Not that I went on the trip in order to see bugs, it has just become an occupational hazard for me - I am so used to looking for bugs that I noticed them wherever I go (or have them pointed out to me by people who know of my interest in them). A lot of what I saw were things I see in my own backyard, but there was one in particular that was very exciting for me, and is definitely NOT something I see in my yard, and, in fact, is something I never will. It was the bug of my dreams. A bucket list bug. It was the blue morpho butterfly. We went to the botanical garden in Cleveland, Ohio, and there was a greenhouse full of butterflies, and among them were blue morphos. They were bigger than I imagined and absolutely as breathtakingly beautiful as I dreamed. Absolutely stunning. I am not going to share a picture with you, though, for two reasons: one, because I didn't get any good pictures - they would not stop moving. And two, because this is a blog about the bugs in my backyard, not the bugs I saw on vacation that don't live anywhere near here. So, now that I am back...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Before I left on my trip the primroses were getting ready to bloom, and there are a lot of them in my backyard this year, so I thought maybe I would get a chance to see the primrose moth again, which I have not seen in several years. So imagine my delight when I went outside today to see blooming primroses and primrose moths. Just to be clear, it was only the primroses that were blooming, not the moths. But they do have a floral look about them. Seeing a pink moth is a delightful thing. I had trouble deciding which bug would be Backyard Bug of the Day today, but I decided ultimately to go with the primrose moth because although I have seen one before, it was a couple of years before I started this blog, so I have never had a chance to show it to the blog readers. And here it is.

 And here it is up close.

 There were actually two on this particular primrose plant. This is the other one, head down in a primrose.

I found a LOT of other bugs today (and spent about two hours on my bug walk - and then found even more while mowing the lawn), and what was interesting about the totality of my bug finds today is that a lot of them were bugs that I hadn't been seeing before my trip. I have talked a lot about bugs having seasons, and this two week gap in my bug searching really highlights it - I didn't see the kinds of bugs I was seeing all the time before my trip, and I saw a lot that I have not seen yet this summer.

Random Bugs:

 Wasps have been around, but not as many as I saw today. Here's one on goldenrod.

 And lurking nearby (you can see the wasp's wing in the lower left of the picture, showing how nearby this is) was an ambush bug. I think I saw one before I left on my trip...

 ... and I saw a LOT of them today. All over, but mostly on goldenrod. This one was a few inches away from the one above.

 There were quite a few pairs of ambush bugs who were working on providing a new generation of ambush bugs.

 People often ask me, "How do you find all these bugs?" and I usually answer, "Because I am looking for them," because what they really mean is, why don't they see all these amazing bugs, too. The reason for that is because they are not looking for them. I am sure they would find them if they were. Now, there are some bugs that are hard to spot, because they are well hidden, or well camouflaged, but there are ways to find bugs that don't require super vision. In some cases, like caterpillars, you can look for leaf damage or frass, and if you see those things you know to check the leaf for a caterpillar. But in the case of ambush bugs, I sometimes find them because I spot their prey. If I see an insect that is hanging oddly from a flower, I know to look to see if it is dangling from the grip of an ambush bug. Like this butterfly.

And this bee.

 And this butterfly.

 This butterfly was flirting with danger every time it landed on a flower.

 So was this bee. I saw a lot of bees today, but I didn't get many pictures of them - they were fast and active.

Honey bee.

The tree growing through the back porch provided a big proportion of the bugs I saw today.

 I spotted this caterpillar, but at first I wasn't sure if it was a caterpillar, or just a piece of dried leaf, or other detritus.

What I didn't realize about this caterpillar until later is that when I saw it, it was in the process of molting.

 I am not sure, but I think you can see where it is emerging from its old skin, right at the part where the body bends forward in this picture.

 After molting it was a lighter color and its antennae (actually, I don't think those are really antennae, but I don't know what they are called) were longer.

 

 It hung out on that same stem for hours...

 

 But eventually it crawled up onto a leaf to start eating.

 There were several others of the same species on the same tree. Here's a close-up showing the tiny blue dots on its body.

 It is another one of those caterpillars that camouflage themselves by looking like bird droppings. This one takes it to a new level by draping itself so that it hangs down like bird droppings sometimes do. I failed in my attempt to identify these; in my new caterpillar book there are several that look similar, but none that are spiky like this.

 On the next leaf over from the above caterpillar was this white hickory tussock moth caterpillar.

 And all over the tree were these caterpillars, some kind of Furcula moth. Most of them were quite small, but this one was obviously a later instar than the others, because it was at least twice the size (and the only one I got a decent picture of, not that you would be able to tell the size difference from pictures).

 Speaking of tiny caterpillars, can you find the tiny looper in this shot? It was so small that when I looked away to adjust the camera for a closer shot, I lost it and could not find it again.

 Also on the same tree were a lot of ladybug larva (and a few ladybugs that were too high up for me to photograph).

 You can't tell from the pictures, but this one was in the process of molting.

This may be a wet process - there are a few drops of liquid on this one (one that you can particularly see here).

There were a few semi-cooperative eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies in the backyard today:

 This one is a female, which you can tell from the blue on the dorsal side of the hindwings.

 This one, with a very tattered wing, came around later, and was a male.

 The male has only a tiny dusting of blue (if any blue at all) on the dorsal side of the hindwing.

 Hopper

 Another caterpillar. I think I saw this same one before my trip, but it was smaller then.

Caterpillar closeup.

 Some kind of hopper nymph, I think.

 A beautiful... cocoon? Egg mass?

 Stilt bug

 I think this is a beetle larva.

 Wasp

 

 Flies and beetles on purple coneflower

 Robber fly. I think this is a female, and I think she was attempting to lay eggs on my house.

 Japanese beetles

 Cocoon?

 There were a lot of these moths in the garden shed.

 Tiny ladybeetle on my arm

 Playing dead.

 I ran over this white hickory tussock moth caterpillar with the lawnmower, but it was okay; the mower blades are set high, and I mowed right over it. It later walked away on its own, so I know it was fine.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Micrathena spider of some kind. I saw a lot of these on a hike in Nebraska last week. I walked right into this one's web, and did a lot of damage, unfortunately. I wish the spiders would not build their webs across my paths.

 Lots of flower crab spiders around right now.

 There are two here.