The Bugs Return

This was the first weekend in... oh, so long that I can't remember how long, that it didn't rain. It was still gloomy and dark, which you know drives me crazy, but it didn't seem to bother the bugs. This is a glorious time of year for bugs, when every day there's new things to be found in the backyard. Not necessarily new new things, but things that I am seeing for the first time this year. It's like seeing old friends (and I did that today, too).

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 I heard some gorgeous singing today during my bug walk, and when I happened to look up in a tree after hearing some rustling, there was this rose breasted grosbeak, which I presume was the soloist of the day.

 

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Some kind of ichneumon wasp. Female. That is not a stinger, it is an ovipositor. There was one area of the backyard, around a tree, where there were a lot of these flying around. I have never seen them in numbers before.

 Weevils

 Baby stinkbugs

Stinkbug eggs. It looks like they haven't all hatched.

 Some kind of Hemiptera nymph

 I think this might be a spittle bug nymph that has not quite worked up its foamy hiding place yet.

 Cabbage white butterfly caterpillar

 Grass bug of some kind, I think.

 Lady beetle

 Oak gall

 Four-lined plant bug

We were out this evening and when we came home there were moths all over the porch. Most of them were this species:

But there were a few other kinds.

 One great thing about photographing nymphs and larvae is they can't fly away, but boy, these babies can jump! Katydid nymph

 Scorpion fly. It does not sting like its namesake.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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There's something on this spider's back...

I don't know if that's a parasite, or just some kind of larva sitting there.

I don't think I have ever seen a mite with prey before. I don't think I even knew they were predatory. That is a very small insect it has caught.