The Bugs in the Backyard: Night Bugs

We went out last night and got home a couple of minutes before midnight. There were a lot of bugs on the front porch, so I went in to get my camera. According to my watch, it was still about a minute before midnight when I finished, which would make the pictures I took yesterday's pictures, but according to the camera's timestamp for the pictures, all but three of them were taken after midnight. I should have gone with what my watch said, but I wanted to leave those pictures for today, so... that's what I did.

Right now I am sitting here near an open window, listening to a cricket singing while I type. It is a lovely, summery feeling.

Anyway, the reason I wanted to leave the pictures for today was because I had already chosen a Backyard Bug of the Day for yesterday, and I found two good Backyard Bug of the Day candidates on the porch, so rather than have three yesterday, I am now going to have two today.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

Moth that looks like ugly 70s wallpaper. It looks good on the moth, though. New species for me and my backyard, I am pretty sure.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

A new-to-me species of tree hopper. Two new bugs for one day!

There were other bugs on the porch, some moths, of course:

A cockroach (Fun fact! I recently had allergy tests and found out that I am allergic to cockroaches. I didn't even know that was a thing they tested for. I assume it is probably their droppings that I am allergic to, and anyway, I was not worried about taking this picture, and did not sneeze afterward). Not the kitchen pest kind.

A beetle that was a bit uncooperative.

Technically, the first bug I saw today during the day was on the porch, too. Or the porch railing, anyway:

Robber fly. It was raining, so I wasn't going to do a bug walk, but when I opened the front door for some fresh air I saw this on the porch railing.

Later, when it stopped raining and I went out with my camera I found this one, with prey.

Eastern tent caterpillars on their tent, which appears to be full of frass.

Hopper of some kind

Tortoise beetle

And now, for a bit of drama:

A bug of some sort, walking around on a fern. And what is that other thing on the fern?

It's an assassin bug. The assassin bug has spotted the other bug (I don't know what kind of bug it is, let's call it a fly for the sake of this story). The fly doesn't seem to have noticed the assassin bug, even though it is extremely obvious.

The fly begins to walk toward the assassin bug...

Closer... the assassin bug reaches out...

The fly turns toward the assassin, which is anxious to grab some prey...

Nope, the fly veers off in another direction. (At the bottom of the picture you can see the previous prey of the assassin bug. It's not starving there).

Drat! The one that got away!

The assassin bug kind of looks like it is considering going after the other bug, but it didn't.

Sawfly larva

Caterpillar

Katydid nymph

Weevil

Sawfly larvae

This has been a very spidery few days, and today the trend continued. I saw a lot of spiders, several of which I have featured the last couple of days, but some others, too, including one that I am pretty sure is a new species for me. Arachnid Appreciation:
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I posted this one yesterday; I think it is a cross spider. Today it was dismantling its web, and for the first time it was on the other side so I got a look at it from underneath.