The Bugs in the Backyard: The Dance

I went out to get the mail today, which means I did not have my camera with me, and as I was walking back up the driveway I saw what I thought was a dragonfly drifting toward me. I very quickly realized that it was not a dragonfly, that it was a butterfly, and it was coasting along on the breeze with its wings straight out, which is why it looked like a dragonfly. As it floated past me it flapped its wings a couple of times and I realized that it was a monarch butterfly. It danced down the driveway, and across the street, and briefly alit on the lawn across the street before disappearing somewhere, and I wondered if it could be my butterfly, the one I released on Sunday. I didn't see it yesterday, contrary to my expectation that due to the cold night it would still be where I left it in the morning, but that doesn't mean it went far. It could have just flown up into the trees, which still mostly have their leaves, and spent the whole day hanging around my backyard before heading off on its long journey. Perhaps it flew past me this morning to say good bye. I like to think at least that it was my butterfly, though I know it could easily have been another one that was also on its way to Mexico.

I found another butterfly today for Backyard Bug of the Day:

Painted lady. This is as close as I got with the camera, though it did flutter around my feet briefly before flying up into the trees. This is a pretty rare sight for my backyard; I have only seen them a couple of times over the years.

Here's at least a magnified view.

Ladybeetle larva on the side of the house. I think tomorrow this is going to be a pupa.

Bumblebee basking on the picnic bench.

Bumblebees right now are by far the dominant insect species in the backyard; by dominant I mean that is what I am seeing the most of. There isn't much left in bloom, a few goldenrod and a lot of asters, and that is where the bees are gathering (except when they are basking on the picnic table or the side of the house). I stood and watched them today, a huge number of them flitting from flower to flower in a patch of asters, and it was quite balletic, the bumblebee ballet, only the music in my mind as I watched them was not the frantic The Flight of the Bumblebee, but a more lilting melody, a waltz. Watching an individual bee I could see that they were very intent on gathering as much nectar as they could, and they would spend a bit of time on each plant, but watching the wider scene it was more like they were bouncing gently among the flowers. It was enchanting.

There were other wasps and bees, too. But mostly bumblebees.

I've been trying to get a picture showing the scope of the bee invasion, but it's just not working. Anyway, there are at least 5 bumblebees in this picture that I can see, and I know there were others within view of the picture, but sometimes they slip into shadows or behind the plants.

Katydid

Another katydid. Same species, I think.

Moth on the side of the house.

Damselfly

The aptly, and quite prosaically named striped garden caterpillar.

Tree cricket

This bug (order Hemiptera, don't know the species) flew around me, feinted that it would land on my shirt, and then landed on this leaf in front of me. And then as soon as I took a picture, flew off again...

... and if I had not seen it land on this plant I don't think I ever would have found it. It blends in quite nicely.

Speaking of which, this looper caterpillar would probably blend in quite nicely in a place where it would be logical to see a stick, but not so much on the side of the house.

Stinkbug nymph

I found this particular bug crawling around on my camera flash. I had to remove it to a leaf so I could take a picture of it.

I think this is a potato beetle

I saw a curious thing as I was looking at this jagged ambush bug, which has been sitting on the same flower for over a week, through the camera.

I don't have good pictures, because what I was seeing was so incredibly tiny, and it was windy, but we'll see if you can see it:

Notice the thing in front of the insect's eye.

Now see where it is in this picture...

... and this picture...

And here, when I finally got it in focus, it's the round thing behind the eye. I don't know what it is–it was much too small to see–but it crawled across the ambush bug's eye.