The Bugs in the Backyard: Grammar Lessons

If you were a kid in American in the 1970s, like I was, and you watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, like I did, you know the pleasure of seeing the antics of mystery-solving dogs periodically suspended for a few minutes for lessons on history and grammar. I am talking, of course, about Schoolhouse Rock, a series of public service cartoon shorts that made us enjoy learning on our day off from school because they had catchy tunes. Schoolhouse Rock is the reason that most Americans my age can recite (or sing, anyway) the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America. We the people grew up on that stuff, and boy, those songs have stuck with me. Today, as I was doing my bug walk, the song that was jauntily bopping around in my head was the one about adjectives, a classic grammar lesson. Here's a bit from the first verse: "I unpacked frustrating first... reached in and found the word worst..."

Yes, my bug walk today was VERY frustrating. Why? Because I saw a LOT of bugs. And I didn't get pictures of most of them! You're going to think I am complaining about nothing when you see the pictures I did get, but you have no idea what I went through. For example, today I saw MANY species of bees (okay, you're going to see some of those), several species of sawflies (you'll see one), wasps, velvet ants (which are actually wasps), two species of butterflies–my first of the year! (you'll only see one)... you get the idea. A big part of the problem is that at this time of year, the bugs are mostly at or near ground level. There's no leaves on the trees yet, there's nothing green or blooming that is tall, so the bugs are all hanging out on the flowers that are available, which are all low to the ground. And I am not even going to go into the rant on how back-breaking it is to get those shots, or the explanation of why I didn't get them.

Here's a sample of how things went:

There's my first butterfly of the year in my backyard! Wait, you can't see it? Sorry, this is as close as I got before it flew away.

Here, let me help you out.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

A beautiful bee on leafy spurge

I don't know what this is. I thought it was a spider at first, but it is so tiny that I really couldn't tell (and I didn't get close enough to really see).

Magnified, though, I can see that it has antennae, which means it is not a spider. Maybe an unbelievably small beetle? I shall never know...

Speaking of beetles...

Weevil

There were A LOT of bees in the rock garden. All over. Multiple species. They were chasing each other around, feeding on flowers... It was wonderful. I can't show you how wonderful it was, but it was. If you want to know what it was like, go dig up a patch of your lawn and replace it with a flowering ground cover of some kind, and then sit and watch.

Bumblebee

Sawfly, on the exact bush I don't want it to be on.

I happened to look at the other side of the caterpillar egg mass today (the side the is not facing the path), and it was covered in caterpillars! I suspect they might still be hatching.

Moth

A couple of nearly identical sweat bees on daffodils.

I know they look the same, but this one was a lot smaller.

So uncooperative...

Check out what this bee is doing–it is cleaning its back with its middle legs, so it looks like it is doing yoga.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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