The Bugs in the Backyard: Close Call

Today was the kind of day where you just walk around your backyard with a smile on your face. Well, that's what I did, anyway. Except it's not all I did. I actually spent most of my time in the backyard with my face in the dirt, come to think of it. A lot of the the pictures I took were of things on the ground. Anyway, I exaggerate. My face was in the grass, mostly, not the dirt.

Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day #1,2,3, and 4:

These are blister beetles, Family of Meloidae, described in Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America as "soft-bodied with round heads and long legs." These are of the genus Meloe, also known as oil beetles.

Most of the following information comes courtesy of Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America. I have seen these before, a couple of times, but never in a group like this, and only, for some reason, on the bricks at the bottom of the back porch steps. I like seeing them in this natural setting, and doing something other than playing dead (most of the time. They did some of that, too, but more on that in a bit...). If you know me, or have been reading this blog, you have probably already guessed what I like about them - that they are blue.

I don't know the species, but Kaufman's FGtIoNA says there are 21 species (of this genus, Meloe, the oil beetles) in North America. It also says that the "adults are flightless ground-dwellers..."

"... with short wing-covers and bloated abdomens." I think they look like they are wearing 17th century dresses, sort of like the ones that Cinderella's stepsisters wear in the cartoon version of Cinderella, except a prettier color. I would call them princess beetles if I had been asked to name them.

It says that "Males of some species use strange kinks in their antennae to grip females during mating." This would be the male of this group. Note the strange kink in the antennae. It is also smaller than the other three.

The three females.

Okay, about that name, "blister beetle." Like I said, I have seen these before, and even looked up what they were, but I had forgotten what they were when I saw these today. Had I known, I might have been more cautious (don't worry, nothing happened). I don't usually touch bugs, but I was trying really hard to get a decent picture of these, and they were not really cooperating, and the male scurried off, and I got him to climb onto a stick and brought him back, and then one of the females scurried off, and I picked her up and moved her to a better place for a picture, where the grass was flattened. (By the way, as I was taking all of these pictures I was really glad that I mowed the lawn yesterday. It was hard enough to get pictures of insects in the grass, and would have been worse if the grass was taller). But as it turns out, the reason these insects are called blister beetles is because if they get squeezed - or otherwise feel threatened - they defend themselves by oozing out an irritant (a chemical called Cantharidin) that can blister your skin.

They ooze this oil from their joints. I can't believe I picked this up. I don't pick up bugs, and of ALL the bugs I decide to pick up... Well, I didn't get blistered, so it's all right.

This is the point where it is charging at me...

This one has a damaged elytron.

Playing dead in the grass

They also protect themselves by covering their heads with their legs. I am not sure how that is helpful.

Having never seen a group of these beetles together before, and being fascinated by them, I kept coming back to look at them during my bug walk. At this point the one that had wandered off had come back again (and I did find another a short way off in the grass, so there were five altogether).

Now I'm just trying to get a good picture... (I took 537 pictures today, and 282 of them were of these beetles).

Nibbling a blade of grass

The male was mating with one of the females when I found them, before he ran off. At this point (quite some time after I brought him back), he discovered one of the females again. But he's backward...

All right, got himself straightened out.

Note he is NOT using the weird notches in his antennae to hold on.

She is eating that leaf.

Being the bug geek that I am, about ten o'clock at night I went outside with a flashlight to see if the beetles were still there. Just the male was.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #5 (Really, I should just call the others collectively #1 and this one #2, so let's go with that. It's about the species, not the individual):

This is a striped garden caterpillar. Yes, that is really its name. It will some day become a rather plain, brown moth. This is the first time I have ever seen one.

This is actually how I first saw it.

Caterpillar close-up - prolegs

It decided that it didn't like me and my camera, so it dropped off the plant onto the ground. I wish I had seen it do this - I was adjusting my monopod when it happened.

Random Bugs:

Assassin bug

Most of the goldenrod has gone to seed; this plant is one of the last holdouts. There are very few bees and wasps around now.

Looper caterpillar getting goldenrod flowers while they last.

Scorpionfly. I am sure you can guess how it got that name. Not venomous, though - that is not a stinger.

Flies

Stink bug and beetle

I hardly ever take pictures of ants, not because I hardly ever see them - I see them all the time - I just see them too often to want to take pictures of them, and they are usually moving, so it's hard to get pictures of them. This one was very still, so I took the opportunity for a photograph.

I mentioned earlier that I kept going back to look at the blister beetles during my bug walk. I didn't realize until I started going back through the pictures to post them here that during that period of my bug walk, from the moment I found the blister beetles until I went inside to get my lunch, I only saw got a picture of two other bugs - the caterpillar that is the other backyard bug of the day, and this bark louse that was on the door frame as I was going into the house to get my lunch. All of the others you see above here were found before the blister beetles - which I found when I had done less than half of my walk around the backyard. It's funny that I felt this was a really successful bug walk, and it made me really happy, when I found so few bugs. But there were some really great ones!

Cricket on the picnic table when I went outside to eat my lunch (Did I mention it was warmer today?).

The rain we have had lately (it rained twice in one week!) has brought out some mushrooms. This is part of the circle of mushrooms from yesterday, but there are more of them now.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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