The Happenin' Places

Today my backyard was kind of like a downtown with a lot of restaurants. The different areas of blooms are the various restaurants, and some were more crowded than others, but that was definitely where the insects were hanging out, except, of course, for the ones who were just out strolling.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Sweat bee, male, of the genus Sphecodes. On daisy fleabane, which was one of the popular places for bees and flies today. This was the only insect I was able to photograph there, though.

Cleaning its antenna.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Some kind of beetle larva. I don't know what kind of beetle this will become; beetles undergo complete metamorphosis, and the larvae generally look nothing like the adult insect. This looks like it should become a lady beetle, but lady beetle larvae look nothing like this (or adult lady beetles). It was on a milkweed plant, which generally tends to be a popular bug spot, though lately they haven't been. This plant had the beetle larva and a lot of ants.

The tree growing out of the back porch (which might be a poplar) is a very popular hangout for insects lately. I have no idea why; there are no flowers on it. I think the leaves might be secreting something. I only got two pictures of insects there, but today it was covered with ants, and there were several species of bees and wasps, along with several species of flies, on the leaves. Also lady beetles, which eat aphids; I didn't see any aphids today, but that tree often will have leaves covered with them. This tree was covered with gypsy moth caterpillars several weeks ago, but I removed them–fortunately it is still a small enough tree that I could do that.

The sumac flowers have regained their popular status after a couple of days of loneliness. Many species of bees and wasps, and a couple of beetles were found there today:

 This is actually two beetles, which I did not realize when I took the picture.

 There are at least five bees/wasps in this shot

 A wasp and two flies here (but only the wasp in focus)

Some bugs off on their own:

 

 Thick headed fly

 

 Buffalo leaf hopper

 

 A pair of plant hoppers, genus Cedusa

 Tree hopper Pubilia concava, attended by ants.

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 Flower crab spider. The black-eyed Susan flowers are often a popular bug hangout, but not today. Tough luck for this spider, waiting there for something to come by for it to eat.

 

 Gorgeous jumping spider (that's my opinion, not the name of the species of jumping spider).