Monarchy

There's so much going on today, where to begin... Well, to begin with, there are four Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day. I know that makes me seem indecisive, but that's only because I am indecisive. There was a combination of never-seen-before/haven't-seen-in-ages/never cooperates going on, and, well, there are four bugs that I had to choose. Almost everything I found today was a great find and there was a lot of cooperation, and at a certain point in my bug walk I was actually hoping wouldn't find anything else really good because I already had a hard enough decision to make about what to choose as Backyard Bug of the Day. And in the end, you could almost say I chose not to choose, by choosing them all. But today wasn't just about finally getting good pictures of things that are hard to photograph, or seeing things I haven't seen in ages, but also about seeing so many facets of the insect world playing out before my eyes.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 I think this is a new insect for me. It looks like a kind of fruit fly, but I couldn't find it in my books. Anyway, it was cute, and a new bug for the backyard, so I kind of had to make it Backyard Bug of the Day. I wasn't even on my bug walk when I found it; I had just eaten breakfast outside, and had my camera with me, and spotted this on my way back to the house.

But there were so many other good candidates...

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 My difficulties in getting butterflies to pose for me are well documented. Well, today I was looking out the kitchen window, getting around to going out to do my bug walk, and saw this butterfly. I didn't think it was worth the effort to drop everything and go out with my camera, but I did, and... long story short (er than it could be), it eventually agreed to cooperate. It is a swallowtail of some kind; I tried to figure out what kind, but failed. I think it is a spicebush swallowtail, although the colors aren't quite right. It looks pretty beat up, though, and I wonder if the blue/green area was once more vibrant and iridescent.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:

 Pearl crescent butterfly. Included as BBotD just because it's so hard to get a decent picture that I am not going to bank on getting another one this year.

And the one I am most excited about... Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #4:

 Monarch butterfly! No, this is not the one whose eclosure I am waiting for in the dining room, but one that I spotted out the door just as I was going out to do my bug walk. This is a female, and...

 ... She was laying eggs!

 She lays them on the bottom of milkweed leaves. She flitted from plant to plant; I have no idea how many she laid, but I did find four of them.

 Visiting some milkweed flowers to feed.

 This is the first time in at least 2 years that I have seen a monarch butterfly (notwithstanding one that I may have spotted a few weeks ago–I am not sure that that is what it was. There are other orange butterflies around the same size). Obviously, since I have been finding the caterpillars, they have been around, but this is the first one I have actually seen, and it was so thrilling to see her laying her eggs. I am so glad I didn't mow down all that milkweed that is growing in the middle of the lawn! She came back a couple of times while I was out there (or maybe there were others. It's impossible to tell).

But there is a lot more monarch action to report on today! Last night when I went to bed there were two caterpillars hanging in the J pose; when I got up in the morning one had become a chrysalis, and later on I found this:

 The second one had just pupated–you can see that it is not in the final shape of the chrysalis. That yellow and white striped part contracts and it becomes smaller, and the whole thing is shiny and jade green. I am annoyed that I just missed the transformation, but I can't spend all day staring at caterpillars. At least I got to see this in-between stage.

 Also, a couple of other caterpillars molted...

 Behind it you can see the skin it has just shed (but not eaten yet) and to the left is its discarded face.

Another exciting find was this–a tiny, new monarch! Apparently one of the leaves had an egg on it that I didn't know about! Sadly, I think that this baby has been eaten; it was on the same leaf as the caterpillar above, and they do sometimes eat small caterpillars. I feel bad about it, like I should have prevented it, because I knew that was something that could happen. But the little one was so small I didn't want to try to move it, thinking it would squish too easily, and I thought it would be safe for a day or two as it got bigger, because I thought the other one would fast for a while after molting and eating its skin, and it was on the other end of the leaf. I didn't think that the bigger one (which is actually medium sized), would go to the other end of the leaf, the stem end, to start eating. Usually they don't do that. Well, they run the same risk out in nature, and there are a lot of other dangers that face them, too. The survival rate of caterpillars is pretty low–one thing I read said about 90% of monarch caterpillars die before they can pupate. Still, maybe it crawled somewhere else and I just can't find it because it's so small! I was under the impression that only the bigger caterpillars will (unknowingly–they don't have good eyesight) eat the young, so maybe this one wasn't big enough to do it. I hope so.

So many stages of monarch life! An adult, laying eggs! Eggs hatching, and then... the hatchling getting eaten (actually, I don't think it hatched today, I think it was a few days old, I just saw it for the first time today), molting, pupating... I was wrong, by the way, when I said that two more caterpillars would start preparing to pupate today. One of them did wander around a lot, but then went back to the leaves. Probably tomorrow.

Other Bugs:

 

 Since there were so many other cooperative butterflies, here's another–cabbage white.

Not all the Lepidoptera were so cooperative today.

 Katydid

 Leaf hopper

 Plant hoppers

 

Wasp

 The ambush bug finally caught a bumblebee

 Bee
 

 Scorpion fly. Not venomous, just looks like a scorpion. With wings. Ponder that horrifying thought.

It occurred to me lately that we have not been out in the evening much this summer, so I have not had a lot of opportunities to see porch light bugs. Well, tonight the porch light was on, and there were very few insects attracted to it. This is the only one I got a picture of. It is, however, one of my favorite porch-light moths, even though I can't find the name of it in my books.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Six-spotted orb weaver. I would like it if once in a while I could get a shot of one of these from the other side so you could see the spots.