There wasn't much to see today, so I don't have much to say. In fact, that was it.
Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:
I may have given this fly Backyard Bug of the Day status before, but it's here today because it's such an interesting specimen. The fly's abdomen (the back end, the third of the 3 body segments that characterize insects) is not that bright pink color; it looks pink here because it has been feeding on a berry from the pokeweed plant. The juice of the berry is bright pink, and so what we are seeing here is the bright pink juice inside the fly. I thought that was interesting, so here it is.
Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:
What we have here is a weevil that is playing dead so I will leave it alone, but I thought it was cool to see the underside so well–a view I don't usually get of insects–so I made it a Co-Bug of the Day for that.
I think I may have mentioned the other day that I had been doing some gardening. Gardening in this case means I was pulling up all of the plants in a particular garden bed; the bed has for years been full of goldenrod, and I want it to be full of something else. Last year I pulled up all the goldenrod, and this year it came back. So, a couple of days ago I pulled it all up again. I waited until the flowers were all done, and I kind of felt like I should wait until winter, or even next spring, but I really wanted to avoid the flowers reseeding themselves in that spot, so I was trying to pull them out before they could do that. Because I am lazy, I dumped all of the plants I pulled up on the ground next to the garden and I have not moved them yet. Since I pulled them up by the roots, the all have quite a lot of dirt around the bottom still, and one particular plant ended up standing straight up in the pile, and it more or less looks like it is just growing there, and maybe it is. Anyway, I found something amusing on that plant today, to be illustrated by the following terrible photographs (in part because it was breezy):
What caught my eye was seeing two different kinds of bugs on the plant; on the leaf in the front is a shield bug, and on the leaf behind it is an earwig. What I didn't noticed at the time is that there is a case bearing moth caterpillar just above the earwig. So that's three different insects here, but what I can't see here, and didn't see when I took this shot is...
... there was yet another insect on the plant, a looper caterpillar.
The shield bug started marching up that way. The shield bug (I think that's what it is, anyway) is in the order Hemiptera, which is classified by its mouth parts, a stabbing tube, basically, that can be used either to suck sap from plants, or suck out the guts of other insects. Some Hemiptera feed on plants, and others are predatory. I don't know which this shield bug is, but when I saw it moving toward the caterpillar I assumed it was planning to attack the caterpillar.
That is not what happened. I didn't get a shot of the exact moment, but the caterpillar actually bopped the shield bug.
The shield bug lost that game of chicken.
I think in reality the shield bug was trying to crawl up the stem of the plant, and the caterpillar got in the way (maybe the shield bug didn't see it at first, either. The caterpillar can do a pretty convincing twig impersonation). So, it had to go the long way 'round.
Tiny beetle. There are certain techniques I have developed for taking pictures of insects, and one that I use when I am trying to take a picture of a bug that is zooming around is to put my hand in front of it; sometimes that will make the subject stop for a moment and I can take the picture. Sometimes that doesn't work, and the insect keeps zooming and crawls right up onto my hand. This is not ideal, in part because it's even harder to take a picture of an insect that is zooming all over my hand, and in part because I don't always know if a particular kind of insect is prone to biting. This one did not bite, but it did not sit still for a picture, either.
Ladybeetle
Stinkbug
Bumblebee chilling out, all covered in morning glory pollen. Fortunately for you, I just missed getting a shot of the bee urinating. Fortunately for me, I just missed being sprayed in the face with bee pee.
Sweat bee
Sweat bee on morning glory. I am not sure exactly how insects eat nectar from flowers, but sometimes with morning glories they feed from the base of the blooms on the outside instead of going into the flowers.
This is not an insect, I don't like it, and it is, in fact, one of my absolute least favorite things about the outdoors, but it's still pretty noteworthy in a grotesque way:
This slug is at least 3 inches long. I put my finger next to it, and it was longer and thicker than my finger. I didn't take a picture of that, because I didn't want to accidentally touch the revolting thing. It rained today, and rain always brings out the slugs. It doesn't always bring out enormous ones, though.
Arachnid Appreciation:
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Spined micrathena spider, rear view
There I times when I have a realization that I am annoying a spider...
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