A Phase

Tada!

Or perhaps I should just say, Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Caterpillar #1 in the dining room has become a chrysalis! In about 10 days or so there will be a butterfly. I know this particular caterpillar was BBotD already, but it has entered a new phase, so it is eligible again. And guess what will happen when it turns into a butterfly?

 There's another caterpillar in the backyard that had a sadder fate. Remember the one from yesterday that had a pile of what looked like larvae of some kind on it's back? Today it was dead, completely flattened out. In this picture it looks like some of those larvae are underneath the caterpillar's body. And there is an assassin bug nymph there, too. The caterpillar's body looks like it has been drained, but I don't think the assassin could have sucked EVERYTHING out so soon...

I can't tell what those larvae are. The look like snails.

Other Bugs:

 Today was the first non-cloudy day that I have been able to go out in the afternoon lately. The bees must like it, because I saw a lot of them today. I saw a few bumblebees, but it was mostly sweat bees.

 

The goldenrod is just starting to bloom, and it's a popular hiding place for jagged ambush bugs. Here's one that has caught a bee. You can see it proboscis, probing for a place to suck the liquids out of the bee.

 

 

 Ladybeetle

 This is one of those bugs that's so small you can't tell if it's a bug or a spec of something on a flower.

 Yes, it's a bug, some kind of Hemiptera, and it appears to be dining on a thrips, which is so small I didn't see it when I was taking the picture.

 Net-winged beetle

 Robber fly

 The side view of a lace bug

Sometimes butterflies make me so mad!

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Some kind of micrathena spider