Is It Summer Or Not?

I saw the first firefly of the season at the end of May, on a night that was hot and muggy, very summery. Since then, the nights have mostly been quite chilly, with last night dropping down into the 40s. Tonight is a bit chilly, too, but when I went outside for some sky time, the fireflies were back, and this time it wasn't just one. The odd thing, though, was that the night was so quiet. There was a rustling of leaves when the wind gusted, but the crickets were not singing.

I was out and about just after sunrise this morning, and thought about going outside with my camera to look for bugs, but I realized that there was probably zero chance of finding anything with the temperature in the 40s. It was just after noon when I actually went out, which is still morning astronomically, because of daylight savings time. That is earlier than I normally go out, and being "morning" the sunshine was in different places than I am used to when I am looking for bugs. It was sunny in places where I usually have shade, and shady in places that are usually sunny. The temperature was in the low 70s by then, but there were not a lot of bugs around, not compared to some of the bugfests that have been out there lately. But I did see two different species of snakes, something that has never happened in one day in my backyard. Those will be at the end of the post though.

Meanwhile, I have a new-to-my-backyard Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Ebony jewelwing damselfly. Just last week we were walking in the woods at a nature center and saw these flitting about, and I thought wistfully how I have never seen on in my backyard (which is not really the right habitat for them), and suddenly, today one appeared. This is as close as I got, and I prefer a better picture for Backyard Bug of the Day, but it's new to the backyard, and may never appear again, so I am honoring it while I can.

One of the chrysalides I found eclosed today:

 Tiny moth (as expected).

Other Bugs:

 Bee in the middle of a clematis flower

 Moth

 Ichneumon wasp, I think. Female. That's not a sting, it's an ovipositor.

 White marked tussock moth caterpillar

 It really looks like it was made out of leftovers. I have always thought it looks like it was made out of leftover caterpillar parts, but really it looks like it was made of leftover scraps of craft supplies, by someone who doesn't really know what a caterpillar looks like.

 Plant hopper

 A couple of leaf hoppers propagating their species. Possibly Scaphytopius acutus. Sigh... the book I have that has the most species of hoppers in it uses mostly scientific names. It's all well and good if you're into that, but I like common names, they are so much more evocative. But Insects of New England and New York by Tom Murray has an extensive collection of hoppers in it.

 I am enchanted by the glimpse of something rainbow colored underneath the elytra of the one on the left.

 Some kind of very tiny hemiptera nymph

 Larva of a syrphid fly, aka hoverfly. Predatory, unlike its adult form. It eats aphids. I have never quite figured out which end is the head. I think it's the end pointing downward in this picture.

 Robber fly

 Wasp?

 Skipper

Snakes of the Day:
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As I was walking along the front of my yard by the street, I happened to think about the fact that aside from earlier this year when there were a lot of snakes on the knoll next to the front steps, that this was the part of my yard where I have most often seen snakes. JUST as that thought passed through my head, I heard a hiss. I looked down and saw this:

 

This could be the same species of snake that I was seeing throughout the late winter/spring, but it's definitely grown since then. I still think black racer, but I am not positive.

 Seconds after I took this picture I managed to startle the snake, and it in turn startled me and fled, so I moved on. And about ten feet further along the front of my yard, I saw this:

 This snake was resting on top of some tall grass and other plants.

 It might be an eastern milk snake. The internet sources I have used (and there were many) to try to figure it out were very... vague. Apparently the coloring of an eastern milk snake varies a lot, and there are a lot of species that look similar, especially young ones, and this is a very small snake, so probably young.

 One of its features is supposed to be a v or y on top of the head, though, so that does seem to indicate that that is what this is.