Unstung

I had a bug on the back of my neck today while I was doing my bug walk, and I tried to brush it off, but it didn't want to go, so I grabbed it and dropped it on the ground, and that's when I realized that it was a bee. It was a bumblebee, and I grabbed it with my hand, and it didn't sting me. It just flew away after a couple of moments buzzing in the grass, and I had a retroactive "Yikes!" moment because I grabbed a bee in my hand, which is precisely the kind of thing you shouldn't do with something that stings. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling like I had a bug crawling under the back of my shirt, which was the exact situation I was trying to avoid by grabbing the bug on the back of my neck in the first place. I definitely don't want a bee down the back of my shirt (or the front, for that matter), because a bee down your shirt sounds like a perfect recipe for getting stung. But then, so does grabbing a bee in your hand. Anyway, the bee's fine, I didn't get stung, and all's well that ends well.

Backyard Bug of the Day (found right before the above incident):

 Large milkweed bug. Notable not only because the milkweed plants have been mostly devoid of bugs this year, when they would normally be covered with bugs like the small milkweed bug, but also because before last year I had never seen large milkweed bugs in my backyard, and then I only saw a few. Today I saw only this one. It didn't want it's picture taken, so you're going to get some weird angles of this bug.

 Check out that proboscis.

Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 I hope you appreciate this picture, because I stuck my head through a spider web trying to get it (not on purpose).

Other Bugs:

 I spent a good portion of my bug walk today trying to get pictures of bees other than bumblebees on the asters, in part because there were more than usual (other species, I mean), but it was a mostly fruitless endeavor. Anyway, here's one...

... and here's another...

... and just above that one, the blur in the middle of the top of the picture is a sweat bee that I almost got.

The rest just would not cooperate.

 And speaking of not cooperating, I was trying to get a picture of these 4 leaf hopper, on both sides of the leaf, but after this shot I spooked them, and that was that. Anyway, there's 4 leaf hoppers, of 3 species. Candy striped, the one that looks like a pale candy striped that I can't remember the name of, and one I didn't get a good enough look at, but which I probably don't know the name of anyway.

White hickory tussock moth caterpillar

Caterpillar close-up. Those little hooks on the feet are what help them to climb and cling to things.

Remember a couple of weeks ago I had a dead cricket as the Backyard Bug of the Day because it was so cool, even though I don't like to feature dead bugs? Well, that cricket is still in the same spot it was then, and today I found another one right across the path from the first one. Also dead and clinging to a branch.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 An absolutely gorgeous jumping spider.

 You can just glimpse the beautiful chelicerae...

 ... and here they are. It's hard to get an in-focus picture of a jumping spider that is walking straight toward the camera.

 Here's the one view I did not get of the spined micrathena spider yesterday, the side view, which is really something.