Where's...

Aside from the HUGE swarm of gnats that followed me around on my bug walk today, the backyard was disappointingly unbuggy. It was a recently-rare occasion of going out in the full heat and sun of the afternoon. Due to wimpishness in the face of hot weather, and timing circumstances, or just plain cloudiness, I am rarely out there in the bright afternoon sunlight. I had hope that sunlight would illuminate more bugs for me.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Tiny caterpillar, less than 1/4 inch long I would guess. I named it Waldo.

 Playing dead.

Today the butterflies were just openly mocking me. I saw a lot of them, and only got bad pictures of two:

 Skipper of some kind

 I think this is a pearl crescent, but I am so annoyed at the butterflies that I am not even going to give it the satisfaction of looking up its name.

 Grasshopper nymph

 Earwig

 There appear to be more hornets in the hole today. You can see what I think is the queen (bigger than the others) kind of under this pile of insects.

Buffalo tree hopper

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Six-spotted orb weaver