Signs

There have always been harbingers of spring: flowers blooming, the leaves coming out on the trees, the grass turning green, the warmer days, the later sunsets, the return of migrating birds. Now, though, since I have become an observer of insects, I gauge the advancement of the season by the insects I find in my yard. Not that I am finding them at all, because I have learned that you can find insects year-round. But the kinds of insects I can find tell me that spring is here.

Like today's Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Hover fly. These feed on flowers, so until there are flowers blooming for them to dine from, you won't see any hover flies.

 Seeing one today definitely made if feel like spring. Even though it was kind of cold outside (bearing in mind that two months ago if it was this temperature, 68ºF, I would have thought it was hot out).

Other Bugs:

 This picture doesn't do justice to the weirdness here; the ant on the left is pulling the other ant backward.

 Tiny bee on a tiny flower.

 It's like they were made for each other.

 Some kind of fly. This is the kind of insect that I could try to look up in a book, and would find a whole bunch of insects that look more or less like this, but would probably not find one that looks exactly like it...

Okay, I just tried to look it up. There are a lot of similar flies, but I didn't find this one.

 

 I found a couple of them today, in different parts of the backyard.

 The crabapple tree is beginning to bloom and attract bees.

 Crane fly

 

 Ladybeetle

 Moth

 Huge ant

 Some kind of Hemiptera

There were about a dozen different kinds of moths on the front porch this evening, mostly way too high up for pictures, but here are a couple of nice ones I was able to reach:

I did get one more, but you'll have to check it out with the spiders in Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 

 I disturbed this moth and it moved to a new spot... right next to a spider. I don't know if that spider would think this prey is too big, but since it landed behind the spider, the spider didn't seem to notice it.

 Jumping spider

 Jumping spider

 Not a spider, a mite, which is also an arachnid.