Mitey

I did my bug walk a little later this afternoon than I have been lately because I spent a long time playing the "It's not raining... wait, yes it is raining... no, it's not... is it?... no... now it's definitely raining... it's not raining..." game. However, as overcast as it was, there isn't a great difference in time. It looks the same outside all day. On sunny days the backyard is dynamic, the light changes over the course of the day, and that can affect what I find, I think. Of course, today I didn't really find much of anything. Even the morning glories weren't much of a draw, and there were a lot of blooms open today. I also didn't get to finish my bug walk, because while I was able to stick it out when it started drizzling, I couldn't continue when it started to rain in earnest. I can't complain; after having above average rain fall for most of the year so far, in the last couple of months we have descended into drought again.

Anyway, enough about the weather.

Sometimes when I am taking pictures of bugs, I see infinitesimal specks walking around them. Most of the time I don't get pictures of them, or even try, but today I decided to try to capture a few shots, and so now, here's an itty bitty Backyard Bug of the Day:

 It's not an insect, it's an arachnid; a mite. I did a brief search on them, and pretty much all of the information is about killing them, so I don't have much to say about them. Wait, I just found them in one of my books. This might be a harvest mite, which in its larval form is called a chigger, and bites people, which is horrible, but I am making it Backyard Bug of the Day anyway, because this does not appear to be a larva. Also, it might not be that kind of mite. I only spot these when I am taking pictures of other bugs because if I am not looking up close with my marco lens I don't even see them.

 Magnified view. Note the 8 legs: arachnid.

 There were several of them scurrying around...

 ... and you can see that they weren't all the same size.

Here's some size perspective: there's the mite next to the leg of the assassin bug I was photographing when I spotted them.

Other Bugs:

 Hover fly on morning glory

The only bee I saw today. All of the other morning glories were empty.

 March fly

Caterpillar

 That water droplet is almost the size of its head. I wonder if it can feel that?

 I saw a lot of leaf hoppers sitting around on leaves.

 Sitting around on leaves was the thing to do today.

 Beetle

 Some kind of Hemiptera

Plant hopper

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

 

 Spider caught a March fly

This might be a new spider for me. My husband gets the credit for spotting it.

 Can you see its eyes peeking out?

 It was hard to photograph; it was NOT interested in posing.