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.