Life

I just got a new camera. The old one has been acting up for about a year, and though it was still usable for the kinds of pictures I take in my backyard, it was having some problems there, too. So, new camera. Today was it's first bug walk. I am already pleased with its performance, but the pictures didn't come out that great just because I was experimenting a lot, and because once again we had a dark and windy day, and those two factors cancel out whatever choices I make with my camera. Fast shutter speed is needed if there is movement (not that it necessarily always helps), but slow shutter speed is needed if it's dark. So... I got a lot of blurry pictures. I am not technically savvy enough to explain why I thought it was better than the old camera, though, so... I guess we'll see how this all works out. It would be nice, though, for the sun to come out some day.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this is a Mealy Bug Destroyer Beetle larva. That's quite the evocative name. And so specific. It is used to control agricultural pests. There's just something about predacious larvae...

 And something that is predacious, but looks like a bit of fluff? Nature has an odd sense of humor.

It occurred to me as I was going through the pictures of the day that I have an almost complete life cycle of insects represented today. Beginning with:

Laying eggs. At least, I assume that is what this assassin bug is doing.

I found another egg today, too. I don't think the antennae you can see here are related (you'll see what they belong to later). This looks like the egg of a snowberry clearwing moth, but my knowledge of insect eggs is very limited, so there could be a million other insects with eggs like this.

And after hatching from an egg, an insect becomes either a nymph or a larva. Like a caterpillar, which is the larva of a moth or butterfly:

 

 

 

 Or a beetle larva

 

 And these larva are one of the world's funniest illustrations of sibling rivalry, I think. As the leaf gets smaller and smaller some of the larva are pushed out and have to go find somewhere else to eat.

 

 Katydid nymph

 

 Some kind of Hemiptera nymph. I would guess some kind of milkweed bug.

If you're a nymph, you go through a few molts on your way to becoming an imago, or adult insect. If you are a larva, though, you have to go through complete metamorphosis, and spend some time as a pupa. Perhaps like this chrysalis:

 

 You can kind of see that this is going to become a moth or butterfly.

 

 Or a cocoon? I don't really know what this is...

And after all of that, you are an adult, or, as I said, an imago:

 Note the egg from before.

 Woolly aphid

 Beetle

 

 Honeysuckle borer

 Ants with their aphid herd

 Some kind of plant hopper. This is new for me this year, but I think it's the same kind I saw a couple of weeks ago.

 Weevil

 Crane fly. Female, with a formidable ovipositor.

 Robber fly

The next thing that happens to you as an insect (well, I didn't find any insects mating, which would be the next step, but the step after that...) is illustrated in Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Something eats you. Like this jumping spider is eating... an aphid?

 I think this is a male and female orchard spider. This was a very brief encounter. There was another spider nearby, on this same plant. It's unusual to see so many spiders close together.