Waiting It Out

One thing about the morning glory flowers is that the bugs have to go way inside for the nectar (though some do seem to feed on it from the base on the outside. I really would like to know how this nectar thing works). They're not sitting on top of the flowers like a daisy, or milkweed, or many, many other flowers. So to take their picture you have to catch them on their way in or out, unless you manage to find one that takes a second to rest on the outside before flying away. The problem is that sometimes they go in there and don't come out. For hours. I think there are some that just stay in there, and get stuck when the flower closes up. So today I found a bug that I wanted to be Backyard Bug of the Day, and I wasn't getting good shots of it as it crawled around near the opening of the flower, and then it crawled in, and I thought I would wait for it to come back out. So I waited. And waited. And waited. And then finished my bug walk. And went out to run errands. And ate my lunch. And that bug was STILL inside that flower. Actually, about half of the flowers had bugs in them today that may have spent all day in there. Other bugs would come and go, but there were bugs I think were in there all along. I think that there are going to be a lot of insects entombed in closed up morning glories overnight.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Rove beetle. Just before it crawled into the flower, down to the very bottom.

There was already a sweat bee in there, and then another joined them.

The sweat bees crawled out, and though you can't see it (well, I think you can see a dark smudge that is the rove beetle), the rove beetle never did. It could still be in there, for all I know. It may be trapped in there by now.

 This bumblebee spent a bit of time lolling in the entryway of the flower.

 And today I saw a lot of sweat bees emerging from morning glories.

 The morning glories were really popular today, with many kinds of insects. Here's a flower fly (there's a sweat bee already in the flower).

 Spotted cucumber beetle

 So many sweat bees...

 Cricket crawling around on the vines

 This may be the same candy striped leaf hopper that was on this morning glory leaf yesterday.

 Lots of ants crawl around on the vines.

 Lady beetle

Most of the backyard bugs were on or around the morning glories, but there were a few in other places, on other plants:

 Thorn mimic plant hopper

 With ant attendant

 These beetles are suddenly everywhere. Well, that's an exaggeration, but I saw a few of them today.

 Case bearing caterpillar

 March flies: this is what they do when they are not swarming. I didn't see any swarming today.

 Tree cricket

 Aphid

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 That black thing in the upper right corner of the picture is a March fly. The spider made a few swipes at its leg, but didn't seem to make much of an effort to catch it.

 Tiny spider on a thread strung between morning glory vines.

Arachnid I DON'T Appreciate:

Just yesterday I was thinking about how there were a massive number of ticks in the backyard in the spring, but I haven't seen one in months. Today I found 4. Here are two of them.