Going Down

The weather yo-yo made it to the top of the string yesterday, and is on its way back down, which makes it unfortunate that I was out all day yesterday and didn't get a chance to do a bug walk. Today I waited as long as I could for the temperature to max out, but eventually I had to just accept that it was not going to get warmer than 51ºF degrees. Of course, just because it was almost 70ºF yesterday doesn't mean there were a lot of bugs around, but there sure weren't many around today.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Wasp, female. I think she may have been searching for a good spot to lay eggs in the tree bark with that long ovipositor.

Random Bugs:

 These were the dominant insect species of the backyard today, though.

 Not as ubiquitous as other years, perhaps, but maybe the numbers will increase. With bugs like this, that have a definite season, I kind of wonder where they were, and what they were doing, before they suddenly appear in huge numbers in my backyard. I imagine that they were larvae, but where were they?

 Striped garden caterpillar, still hanging around. I wonder if it is actually eating the dried flowers on these goldenrod plants.

 Rove beetle

And now, because it's Halloween, something scary...
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 This is one of the most dangerous things in my backyard. Statistically, I suppose that the moqsuitoes are more dangerous, as they kill more people worldwide than any other animal, but ticks can kill you, too.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 I found this spider crawling on my arm. It didn't obey the rule that if you're going to crawl on me, you have to sit still for a picture, so I transferred it to this rock, and eventually it stopped running around so I got this shot.

 Missing a few legs

Jumping spider