An Unrealizable Dream

Tonight the nighttime backyard featured fireflies, crickets, and howling coyotes–those last in the distance somewhere. As I stood there, surveying my little corner of the world in the darkness, I couldn't help but sigh over the fact that the land next to my backyard is for sale, and I want more than anything to buy it. I have wanted to buy it since we bought the lot for our own property. It has been my dream for almost twenty years. Imagine, if you will, what it would be like if I had 34 more acres to call my backyard... how many bugs there would be... Of course, I can't afford it. Unless the five people who read this blog all send me $20,000.00. Just kidding. There's around twenty people who read this, so you'd each only have to send me $5,000.00. I guess that means some developer is going to get it, and cut down all the trees, and whatever it is that the bugs and the wildlife love, and... you know what, I don't want to think about it. I just want to think about the bugs in the backyard I have. Sigh.

The nighttime front porch featured a nice variety of insects, from multiple orders. One of the front porch visitors attracted by the porch light is the Backyard Bug of the Day:

Spring fishfly. Large–a couple inches long–lovely, and a very clumsy flyer. Order Neuroptera. There was a green lacewing on the porch that I didn't get a picture of, that is also from that order.

I guess I might as well start the blog backwards and show you the other bugs that were on the porch when we got home this evening:

There were a few moths, of course. Order Lepidoptera.

And some cockroaches (the bug on the left), order Blattaria. (The other bug is a June bug, which is a beetle, order Coleoptera).

There were two species of cockroach. I recently had allergy tests and found out that I am allergic to cockroaches, and I can't help but wonder if that means all species of cockroaches, or just the ones that invade people's kitchens (which is not what this kind does).

Closer picture of the other cockroach. You can't tell from the pictures, but this one is about four times the size of the other one.

Wasp or sawfly? Either way, order Hymenoptera.

Something from the order Hemiptera

Weevil. Coleoptera.

This biggish beetle, which might be a dung beetle. Order coleoptera. It looks blue in this picture, but I think that's just the lighting. It looked black in real life. After I saw this picture I did go out to find it and see for sure, but it was gone.

And now for some good news:

I believe that this gypsy moth caterpillar has died from the fungus! Huzzah! May they all succumb the same way!

And speaking of fungus:

Lady beetle with fungal infection

Taking off

Other Bugs:

I found another mealy bug destroyer larva, and this one has lost a lot of its fluff. I don't know if that is supposed to happen, like as a part of its development, or if it's wear and tear.

Tiny fly... or wasp?

Speaking of wasps:

I found this bit of a small wasp nest.

And there were other insect structures today:

Cocoon in the garden fence

I think this is a spider egg sac. On milkweed. I keep finding eggs on the milkweed, and none of them are monarch butterfly eggs!

This might be an egg mass, too.

And another cocoon. I think I saw this one a while ago, or one similar. The colors look darker, though, so maybe it's about to eclose.

It better hurry, this caterpillar had already eaten a good portion of its leaf.

Fly

Robber fly with prey

A species of round-necked longhorn beetle, possibly Cyrtophorus verrucosus

Moth

Winter firefly

I didn't see many spiders the last couple of days, but today was back to being very spidery. Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Bowl and doily spider, in an unusual spot–on a leaf instead of a web.

Tiny orb weaver

Even tinier, don't know what it is.

This spider has been sitting on the exact same folded over leaf for at least a week. I wonder if it has an egg mass inside.

 

 Must have a jumping spider, of course.

It's completely unprecedented, but I found another species of snake today–the third in two days. Snake of the Day:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

 

 I spotted this one in the old raised garden bed, but it spotted me first and slithered away before I could react. I went on with my bug walk, but later went back to see if it had come back, because sometimes they do. It was not in the spot where I had seen it, so I started taking pictures of a spider and happened to look over and see the snake peeking at me in the corner of the garden bed.

 Garter snake or ribbon snake, I can't remember the difference, and I didn't get a good enough picture of it to look it up and see.