The Bugs in the Backyard: Pretty In Pink

I decided on the theme of today's blog hours ago, and now that it's time to write it... I have forgotten what I wanted to say. Sad that whatever I was pondering as I did my bug walk, something that I obviously thought was worth writing about, has completely slipped my mind. However, given the difficulties I had finding bugs today, and the greater difficulty in photographing them (they were all in very awkward places), it might not have been very kind, or expressing a great love of nature, so maybe it's just as well. Actually, it might have had something to do with the gross weather, now that I think of it - hot, humid, and gloomy, my least favorite combination - so count yourself lucky that you're missing whatever that weather rant was going to be. Anyway, my bug walk was disappointing (although I did see a lot of tiny spiders), so I turned on the porch light in the evening to see what that might attract, and that is where I found something I have never seen before to be Backyard Bug of the Day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

As happens far too often, I have no idea what this is. It looks sort of like a moth, but not really. It looks sort of like a moth fly (which is a fly, in case that's not clear), but not really. With a huge stretch of the imagination it seems a little like a hopper, but not really. It's not in my book under any category. So... No idea. [Edit - I asked for help in the bug group on facebook, and was told it's a Derbid planthopper. The face really doesn't look like a planthopper, but the body does. So... there you go]. It's tiny - maybe an eight of an inch.

Because it is tiny, and sitting on a wall, it was really hard to get pictures of it, so I am posting a bunch from different angles to give you the best idea of what it was like.

What is most fascinating about it is the way it was sitting with its wings straight up. I don't think I have seen a bug do that.

Looks like bunny ears. I love the pink accents. Pink is not a common color on insects, at least not that I have seen.

There were actually two of them.

So, here's what I found on my bug walk:

Male tree cricket. There were thorns between me and it, so I this was as close as I could get - and had to stand at a very awkward angle to get the shot.

There was a female nearby - same problem taking pictures of her, plus, she was in a curled up leaf.

I saw this for the first time back in June, and I don't think I have seen any since - jumping bristletail. This one was on a tree trunk, about a foot above the ground. Very awkward place for taking pictures.

Then, what is really interesting, is that after not seeing any of these in months, I found two today, on opposite sides of the yard.

Ants surrounding an aphid (I think it's an aphid). I can't imagine one aphid can produce enough honeydew for that many ants. But maybe they are just protecting it, because aphids are strangely scarce this year.

Moth. By the way, it was evening on a completely overcast day, which is why all of these pictures have such dark backgrounds. It was almost completely dark outside.

Weevil

Fly

Another weevil. The head is at the bottom in this picture.

The brown hooded owlet moth caterpillar was feeding on the goldenrod flowers today.

Katydid

The porch light provided a lot more bugs than the bug walk today. I am going to show you some of what was there, but I didn't even take pictures of most of them - there were a lot of little moths and hoppers that wouldn't sit still.

Here's what I did get pictures of:

Cricket. Not one of the usual porch light visitors.

Tiny Hemiptera of some kind.

Tiny hopper.

Bugs of different orders hanging out together (two Hemiptera and a Lepidoptera).

Three orders - Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera. The two above are a hopper and a moth, and the small one...

... Is a moth fly.

This is the smallest hopper I have ever seen. It was about a sixteenth of an inch. Small enough that I couldn't even tell it was a hopper without seeing it through the camera.