The Bugs in the Backyard: Tree Worlds

I love trees; I have, at times, been a literal tree hugger. I cried when I saw redwoods for the first time. I love to see them come back into their glory in the spring, and I love their lush greenery in the summer. I am one of the few people who live around here who doesn't love autumn; yes, the colors are amazing, but I hate what they mean, that the leaves are about to fall, and then the trees will be dormant until spring. I love, though, that many trees already have the buds of flowers or leaves for the next year by the time winter comes, and seeing those hopeful signs is heartening to me. I have never really understood the expression about seeing the forest for the trees, but I know it has something to do with seeing the whole versus the details. And you can take that to a different level when you think about looking at a tree and seeing it as itself, but not thinking about the myriad forms of life that are living in it.

I hardly ever think about that myself. Sometimes it is horribly brought forward, when the trees are full of gypsy moth caterpillars and you can hear them chomping away on the leaves, and are surrounded by the rain of their droppings. Then I am terribly aware of what is going on up there, but most of the time I am afraid I just think of it as branches and leaves. It's dumb that I think that way; I have a lot of very young trees in my backyard, and they have low branches where I regularly seek and find insects of many kinds. I search for insects on the tree trunks, too, and there are a great variety of insects to be found there. But for some reason I don't often think about a tree as being teeming with life in addition to being alive itself. Last year when I finally found a stick bug I read that stick bugs spend most of their time high up in oak trees, and the time you see them is when they come down to the ground in the fall to lay their eggs. So all those oak trees in my backyard–are they full of stick bugs? I can't see what's up there, and so I don't think about it.

I was thinking about it today, though, because I happened to look up and see this:

Can you see what I saw?

There's a little caterpillar, a looper, crawling around on the branch. It was several feet above my head, and I would not have seen it if I had not chanced to look up. It is probably one of many insects living in this tree that I never look at or think about.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Fly or wasp, I don't know. Possibly sawfly, which is a kind of wasp.

Today was really buggy in the backyard again. And I sort of did two bug walks, because I did my bug walk and then went out later to mow the lawn, and I always bring my camera out when I mow the lawn. I had to stop mowing a few times to go get my camera from the porch, and then after I finished mowing I just walked around the yard for a while, enjoying the evening, and taking pictures occasionally.

Buffalo tree hopper

Katydid nymph. I think this is a different species from the weird, Dr. Seuss-ish one I have been posting lately. It's a lot bigger, too, and I wonder how big these are when they are hatched. This is maybe halfway to its full size, maybe a little smaller. I have never seen one much smaller than this, though.

Loooooong legs and antennae.

This is some kind of leaf beetle, but I always think it looks like juustoleipa, a Finnish cheese.

I wonder if these are the same two sawfly larvae I saw sitting side-by-side like this last week.

Some kind of geometer moth, I think. I saw this during my bug walk, and then about 6 hours later when I was finished mowing the lawn it was still there.

Bald faced hornet. I heard this one coming from behind me, buzzing quite loudly. Then it circled around me and the landed on this garden post. It started chewing at the wood.

Here you can see where it has bitten away the wood, which it will use to make its paper nest. Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America describes it as "beneficial" because it "kills flies and other yellowjackets."

I wish I had looked more closely at this when I was outside, but it was hard to tell what was going on here. Maybe something molting?

I have mentioned spittle bugs before, and this is why they are called spittle bugs. They make this pile of bubbles to hide inside, and it looks like spit on the stems of plants.

There was something missing from yesterday's circle of insect life post, and this is it. Ensuring that there will be more longhorn flower beetles of this species in the future.

Photobombed by another flower beetle. I wish I had noticed it, I would have tried to get a better picture of it. It has awesome antennae.

There will be more winter fireflies, too.

I found another chrysalis.

Eastern Tent Caterpillar

Caterpillar close-up

Crane fly

Moth

The back porch tree has a lot of these little herds of aphids tended by ants:

If you look closely on the right, you can see what these groups are for:

There are aphids secreting honeydew, and an ant taking the droplet...

There have been a LOT of flies around the backyard lately, of many species.

The backyard is still very spidery, and I wish I had kept better track over the last week or so of what I was finding. Much to appreciate for Arachnid Appreciation:
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This gorgeous jumping spider is eating an insect that I think I have never seen before. Normally that would make the insect a shoo-in for Backyard Bug of the Day, but under the circumstances...