The Bugs in the Backyard: The Pitter-Pat of...

The coolest thing that happened in the backyard today is something that I can't show you, because it's something you can't take a picture of. And even if you could take a picture of it, I was mowing the lawn when it happened, so I didn't have my camera on me (I do put it on the back porch while I am mowing the lawn, just in case I find something cool that is willing to sit still while I run to get it, but that was not the case here). It was a sound that was entertaining, not a sight. By the way, if you are afraid of spiders, you should stop reading now, and come back for the Backyard Bug of the Day. You won't find this story as charming as I do. It's not really a story, though, and after all of this buildup it's probably going to be a little bit of a letdown when I tell you what it was, but here goes: I have to pay attention to what's right in front of my lawnmower while I am mowing because there are frequently bugs, spiders, or toads that nearly get run over. Basically, toads, moths, crickets, and spiders. Today I almost ran over a spider, a fairly large one, so I halted and watched it scurry. Sometimes the spiders will move just a little bit, and then stop, so I can go get the camera to get a picture, so I was watching to see if it would do that (and also to make sure it got out of the path of the lawn mower). It was a pretty big spider by my backyard's standards, and it was not interested in posing for a picture. As it fled into the leaf litter of the closest flowerbed, I could hear the skittering sounds of its feet against the leaves. I don't know why, but that just struck me as completely delightful. You don't usually hear spiders - they don't sing, or chirp, or hum, or make any of the other kinds of sounds you get from insects. I think some of the really big spiders (like tarantulas) in the tropics might hiss. But that is it for spider sounds. I don't think they can even hear, either. They sense vibrations in other ways. But this sound of a spider running across leaves was the kind of thing that you'd hear in a movie where there's a scene of a scurrying spider, and you might not really believe it's real - we've all seen spiders run, and most of them are not audible. But like I said, this was a larger spider (and we're not talking tarantula sized here, maybe about 2 inches across its leg span), and it was on leaves, and it made that sound. It's kind of surprising what you can hear in the insect world when you really listen, like the flutter of butterfly wings, or a caterpillar munching leaves. So, today I heard a spider skittering. And it made me smile.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think this is a moth of the Crambid family. Or genus. I still get those confused. Anyway, there are a lot of them, and they are pretty cool to look at up close sometimes, but sometimes they are just very beige. Also, there are a million little moths around at the moment, fluttering up from the grass as I walk around, and I just can't stop to look at every single one (especially since most of them will just fly away). So when this one landed near me when I was taking a picture of something else, I almost didn't bother to even look at it, much less take a picture, but since it seemed like it was planning to sit still for a while, and was kind of big for this kind of moth, I decided to give it a look, and I am glad that I did. These moths have such a weird look to them, but they often look like really cool tapestries up close. This one doesn't have that tapestry look, but its detailing looks kind of purple (which could just be the picture), which is not a color you see a lot in bugs, and is therefore awesome. I really wish I could see what these wings look like spread out. In general these moths do a very good impression of dried pieces of grass.

And speaking of purple moths...

I found this moth today, too. It has an ever-so-slightly purple look to its pattern. This is an underwing moth, I think it might be a Darling Underwing, but it could be an Obscure Underwing. Both field guide and online research has been inconclusive, because they look pretty similar in the pictures.

It's a pretty good sized moth.

This picture, after the moth flew and landed way over my head on a window screen gives you a hint of why it's called an underwing, and what makes it amazing. The pattern you see when the moth is at rest is very good for blending into tree bark, but when it flies, its underwings have bright pinkish stripes on them. I tried so hard to get a picture of that, but it flew too fast. It was beautiful to see. In this picture you can't see the pink, because it's the wrong side of the wing, but you can see that it is striped.

Random Bugs:

Wasp

I think this is a red-banded hairstreak butterfly.

When it flexes its wings you get a hint of blue.

That leaf is getting very crowded.

I think this is a larva of some kind inside a leaf. I don't mean in the curl of a leaf, I mean there is a space between the front and the back of the leaf, and the larva is in there. It's almost puffy.

There are two bugs this could be, a stilt bug, and something else I can never remember (and can't seem to find in the book right now). They look pretty similar to me from the pictures in the book. The stilt bug, which I think this is, is a kind of assassin, and related to the thread-legged bug that was BBotD yesterday.

White marked tussock moth caterpillar

Evidently it is time for the ant queens to take off on their mating flights:

Here's one with a couple of suitors. She had more, but a couple of them flew off when I got close with my camera.

Here's a queen without any suitors. I think I saw another ant mating tussle on my arm, but I didn't realize at the time that the squabbling bugs that landed there were fighting for the chance to pass on their DNA. I brushed them off - you can't take pictures of bugs on your own right arm.

Here's the caterpillar that was all wet from molting yesterday. Still on the same leaf. I should have gotten a picture of its face, to show if it has turned black yet.

You have an advantage over me in that if I post a picture, you can generally assume that there is a bug there, so it's probably easier for you to find it than it is for me, out in the backyard, when a leaf just looks like it has a curled up, brown edge to it, and I have to do a double-take to see that it is a caterpillar:

Yesterday I thought the question of what kind of milkweed bug nymphs were gathered on this milkweed pod was settled, because there was a small milkweed bug there, but today...

... There was a large milkweed bug there.

Small on the left, large on the right.

Large milkweed bug with a discarded exoskeleton

Exoskeleton

Large on the left, small on the right. I think you can see (sort of) the difference in size and pattern. And color, even.

Cricket

There are two places in my yard where I see grasshoppers:

1: This one particular flowerbed. I don't know why they are attracted to this one, and not others, although there is one flower there that only grows there. But I mostly see them on flowers that are found in other parts of the backyard.