The Bugs in the Backyard: Looking Things Up

I don't have time to be wordy today, I procrastinated too long, and it's been taking forever lately to load the pictures. But it's the pictures you're here for, right? So...

Wait, just one thing to say... It seems like my backyard is in the larval stage. I found a LOT of bugs today, and an amazing number of them, and the bugs I have been finding all week, are larvae or nymphs of some kind.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Beetle. I didn't look it up [Edit: okay, I did, when the blog went awry and I had to spend a lot of time waiting for things to reload. It might be a flower longhorn called Encyclops caerulea]. I am pretty sure this is a new species for me and the backyard. It is unbelievable to me how many new species I have been finding this year.

Other Bugs:

Sweat bee. One thing that is disturbing in my backyard lately is the lack of bees. There are flowers blooming that are usually very attractive to bees that just aren't attracting them this year. This one, for instance, which might be a raspberry? But the multiflora rose are blooming, and I didn't see a single bee on those plants anywhere in the backyard.

Plant bug on daisy fleabane, possibly a Scentless Plant Bug.

Damselfly eating something... It kind of looks like a moth, but I didn't think they ate the wings. I saw a dragonfly catch a moth once, and I watched it eat it; it ate the body and then just discarded the wings.

Gnat on yellow iris

A moth blending in:

Robber flies were everywhere today...

This one is eating a tiny insect.

In a moment of terribly misplaced optimism, I decided that I was going to identify all of the caterpillars that I am posting today. I was able to find a couple of them in the book, but I didn't get all of them. Like this one:

No idea. But I have seen quite a few of these in the backyard lately, all feeding on the same kind of plant (which I am also unable to identify), one on each plant, in different parts of the backyard. I went through the caterpillar book three or four times, and never found one that looks like this. It might be fall cankerworm; the picture in the book isn't this color, but it says that it his highly variable and can be several different colors.

This skipper is the first butterfly I have seen since... Sunday or Monday, whichever day was when I saw the monarch. I haven't seen any species of butterfly at all since then, until this skipper today. That's a bit weird... and sad, and worrisome. I tried to identify this skipper, by the way, with no luck.

These are so amusing. There are a LOT of them in the backyard this year. Whatever else is lacking, there are plenty of sawfly larvae, of a variety of species.

In fact, here's another.

There are definitely plenty of caterpillars. I am surprised that I was able to identify this one, because there are a LOT of caterpillars that look more or less exactly like this:

It is a cabbage white caterpillar, my husband's least favorite butterfly. We didn't plant much of a vegetable garden this year, only tomatoes, so there's nothing in there for the cabbage white caterpillars to destroy, but I found a lot of them on this dame rocket. Usually these flowers are a magnet for bees and butterflies, but today I saw only one bee, and, well, you know about the lack of butterflies. There have been a LOT of caterpillars on these lately, though–several species.

And this moth. Same species (could be the same moth, even) from yesterday, same kind of flower, different side of the arbor. Some kind of geometer moth.

Assassin bug

Check out that proboscis!

Crane fly, female

Crane fly, male. I don't know if they are the same species, but they do look similar.

Weevil. It looks like it is holding its hands over its eyes in order to be "It" for hide and seek.

There have been a lot of different species of beetles in the backyard lately:

Tree hopper, species Atymna inornata. It looks like a Muppet, but not furry.

Eastern tent caterpillar

Lady beetle

This might be a white furcula caterpillar. At least I am fairly sure it is some kind of furcula caterpillar.

That tail splits when it is annoyed, and sometimes it waves its tail around.

There have been a few hoverflies around lately, but this is the first one that would sit still for a picture. They have been very uncooperative. Ironically, it took me several tries to get this picture to load.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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