The Crack of Dawn

I was up at the crack of dawn today, not because I was planning to wait for the eclosure of today's butterfly, but because I wanted to see if yesterday's butterfly was still around. And covered with dew.

It was:

 I expected it to be there, really. I just wanted to see it covered with dew. What I found interesting, though, is that it flexed its wings when I got close to it. I was surprised that it reacted at all. It was pretty chilly overnight, down in the 50s.

Since I was out there I figured I might as well see what else was around:

 Primrose moth in evening primrose.

 The viceroy caterpillar, which I expected to see. What I did not expect was that this would be the last time I saw it; it was gone when I went out this afternoon for my bug walk.

 I found this amazing looper caterpillar, too, dangling from a silk thread. (Sorry about the blurry picture, and those that will follow. It was dark, my camera isn't working well, and the wind was moving the caterpillar).

 Yes, it is doing what you think it is doing.

 Assassin bug with moth prey

 I saw quite a few stuporous bumblebees.

I ended my sunrise bug walk when I discovered that a slug had crawled into my clog and I had squished it with my sockless foot. It chagrins me to say that this is not the first time this has happened to me. Anyway, I had to go in the house and wash the slug guts off my foot, and for some reason I didn't feel like going out again after that.

Today's butterfly had not eclosed yet at the time I went out early (which may have been around 6:00 a.m., I am not sure), but it was out by about 10:00. I leave them in the enclosure for a while for their wings to dry, but by about 12:30 when I went to let this one out, it was getting pretty feisty and flying around inside the enclosure. So, I took it outside...

 It flexed its wings a few times... (You can see the spots on the hind wings that show that it is another male).

 ... and flew within two minutes of being brought outside. Complete contrast to yesterday's butterfly.

 This one went right up into a small tree, and flexed its wings a few times before appearing to settle down to rest like most of them do. So I walked down to the mailbox, but by the time I came back with the mail, the butterfly had flown away.

There will be at least two, if not three eclosures tomorrow.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Moth, on moss

So many moths that at first glance look like plain brown actually have some beautiful colors and patterns on their wings.

I tried today to get pictures showing how covered in bugs the tree growing through the back porch is (wow, that's a horrible sentence), but of course whenever I tried to take a picture showing five leaves, each with a wasp on them, the bugs would all fly away. So... this is the best I got:

 You can see two wasps, a couple of ants, a leaf hopper, and if you know what you're looking at, in the background there's a ladybeetle larva.

 These wasps are all over the tree.

Other Bugs:

 Thorn mimic plant hopper

 Woolly bear caterpillar, which will grow up to be an Isabella tiger moth. Two interesting things about woolly bears regarding winter: Number one, no, you can't tell how bad the winter will be based on the ratio of brown to black (well, maybe that's not interesting), but according to some scientists it might be possible when you look at the ones in the spring to tell what the previous winter was like, because the length of their growing season will be reflected by the color ratio. However, that is of dubious use, since you don't need a caterpillar to tell you hard the winter was if you just lived through it yourself. Anyway, number two, they overwinter as caterpillars. Well, maybe that's not interesting either, but considering how many Lepidopteran larvae (caterpillars) pupate in the fall and spend the winter as chrysalides (underground, in some cases), the fact that these guys just look for a sheltered space to curl up in kind of intrigues me.

 Grasshopper nymph, on a suspiciously autumnal-looking leaf. It's not autumn yet!

Tiny moth. I saw a lot of moths flying around today.

 This white hickory tussock moth caterpillar has just molted, and to my surprise appeared to be eating the leftover skin. I know that monarchs do that, but since I frequently find these tufts that are discarded whtmc skins on trees, I assumed they don't eat them. Perhaps they eat the skin part, and not the fuzz.

The infested looper I found yesterday appears to be in a bad way:

I am not sure if it's even alive.

 Another tussock moth caterpillar, the white marked tussock moth caterpillar.

 Some of those spines are venomous. I just avoid them all.

It would appear that those things next to and behind it are strings of frass. I have never seen that before. I didn't need to see it now. In the picture above, with the caterpillar under the leaf, you can see them hanging down. Weird.

 If you're an insect, this may be the last thing you see before you're attacked by a stinkbug.

 Moth eggs

 Every year these are laid on the deer netting over the blueberry bush.

 The primrose moth was still there when I did my bug walk in the afternoon, but it was outside the flower instead of inside.

Arachnid Appreciation:.
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 Bowl and doily spider

I know this is a horrible picture, but I wanted to include it because this is a species of spider that I didn't see yesterday, and it just adds another species to the mix for the week. It was pretty feisty.

Bug Life

Drat. I spent so much time trying to organize my thoughts for this blog post that I have now basically run out of time to write anything much for this blog post, because I have quite a lot of pictures today. Yes, that's right, I have a lot of pictures. It was sunny today, and pretty buggy by recent standards, so I took 557 pictures. About half of the pictures are of spiders, though, so if you're an arachnophobe, you're only going to be seeing half of what was so cool in the backyard today. And several of the bugs I just didn't manage to get a good shot of, so those won't be included, either.

Anyway...

The first time I had a butterfly eclose this summer I got up at the crack of dawn to be able to see it. Supposedly they usually eclose in the morning, so in order not to miss it I had to be up when it became morning. And then it didn't happen until almost 11:00. But I saw it happen. Since then, up until today ten more butterflies (I think) have eclosed in the dining room this summer, and I didn't see any of them, because I wasn't going to get up at the crack of dawn again to sit and wait. It something that happens fast, so if you're not sitting and waiting, chances are you're not going to see it. 5 of them eclosed while I was out of town, even (3 in one day!) One eclosed while I was at church on Sunday. So I am pretty casual now about when they eclose; having seen it once, I don't need to make an effort to see it again. So today, when the butterfly that I knew was going to eclose today hadn't emerged by 12:30, I just continued going about my day... for about 30 seconds. I took a picture of the chrysalis, posted it on social media with a caption saying I was still waiting, and then when I walked past the enclosure 30 seconds later, the chrysalis had burst and the butterfly was pushing its way out. I had to run for the camera.

 Sorry for the blurriness. Dim light, moving insect... But it's still a cool moment.

 Good look at how swollen the abdomen is before it pumps fluid into the wings to expand them.

 

 I brought it outside a few hours later. It was getting pretty feisty in the enclosure, but it wasn't ready to fly yet (In fact, last I saw at about 10:30 this evening, it was still resting on this flower).

 Male, as you can see from the black dots on the hind wings.

There will be another eclosure tomorrow, and I think that one will be pretty early in the morning, based on the progress of the chrysalis, when the butterfly first started to show through, and when it became really clear. I wasn't all that surprised that today's was a later eclosure, for the same reason.

Okay, what next...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I have been trying to get a good picture of this species of bee for a couple of years. I think this one is finally pretty good. I don't know why I like it so much; I think it's because it is so mismatched, like it was put together out of leftover bee parts, or it was laundry day and this bee couldn't come up with an outfit that matched. It is a sweat bee, from the genus agapostemon, but I don't know the species.

And look at that cool eye:

It takes a lot of shots to get a decent picture of a bee that is busy...

 ... and I only showed you the best ones.

The tree that is growing out of my back porch is nearly always covered with aphids:

That means it is a great place for anything that eats aphids. There are a lot of things that eat aphids, but specifically, the tree is a major hangout for ladybeetles. Today I managed to find every stage of the ladybeetle life cycle on this tree:

 This is where it begins...

 Then eggs are laid...

Larva hatch...

They pupate... (interesting how the pupa does look a lot like the imago–adult–when the larva does not)...

And then, you get a ladybeetle!

There are a lot of other bugs attracted to that tree for other reasons (I presume), including some wasps/bees, but none of them will sit still to have their picture taken.

Other Bugs:

 I am seeing a lot of grasshopper nymphs in and around the rock garden...

 ... from a couple of different species.

 I think this might be the same kind of weevil I found yesterday (was it yesterday) that was BBotD. I got a better picture of it today. That is an impressive snout!

 I found this huge (okay about 2 inches long), empty chrysalis on the side of the house. I wonder what came out of it.

 Katydid

 Hopper

 I have been seeing white hickory tussock moth caterpillars every day, and not bothering to take pictures of them because I see them every day, but it's been a while since I posted one, and I should have given the general caterpillariness of the blog lately, so... here's a white hickory tussock moth caterpillar.

 Tree hopper.

 Viceroy caterpillar. It's starting to look greener.

 Looper caterpillar covered in parasitic wasp eggs.

 Damselfly

 Dragonfly

It's eating something...

Today was quite a day (and evening) for finding spiders, so there's a lot to appreciate in Arachnid Appreciation:
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First, I think it's interesting that among all the spiders I found today, I didn't see a jumping spider or a crab spider. In fact, I think it was all orb weavers (or web weavers, anyway):

 This spider was building a web on a milkweed plant.

 "Hiding" on the seed pod of the plant.

There is a cluster of several webs in front of the front porch, spanning between bushes and the porch:

 I think these are female (above) and male of the same species.

 Six-spotted orb weaver

 Arrow-shaped micrathena

 I found this spider just because I saw its huge web on my bug walk; the spider itself spends the day hiding. So I went out after dark, and found it building a new web. I waited a while for it to finish and then got these pictures.