Wake-up Call

Last night I stood out on the back porch looking at the stars and watching the fireflies, and while there were beauties to be seen, there was nothing interesting to listen to. Other than the sounds of traffic from the highway in the distance, there was no sound at all. No crickets, no katydids, no tree frogs... no sounds of nature. It is ironic, then, that today I was awakened by the sound of an insect. At first I was confused, in the bleariness of waking, not knowing if I was hearing a neighbor using a power tool, or a cicada. When I went out to do my bug walk, though, it became clear that it was, indeed, a cicada that was my alarm clock in the morning. I didn't see one; I have only seen a handful of them in the 19 years since we bought the land here, and by a handful I mean about the number of fingers I have on one hand. But I could hear them, though. One of the unmistakable sounds of summer.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Damselfly, in the process of eating a crane fly

 

Delicate, but deadly. A most graceful predator.

Other Bugs:

 Some kind of chrysalis. I wonder where that hair-like thread came from.

 Robber fly, laying eggs, I think.

 Some kind of Hemiptera nymph. Possibly a stinkbug

I found a lot of assassin bug nymphs today, of a variety of species:

 This one has caught a tiny beetle.

Caterpillars pretending to be twigs:

 

 You know a fly is tiny when it's smaller than an aphid.

Hopper nymph. I really wish I knew what these grow up to be.

 Weevil

 This looks like an ant, but much bigger, and with wings. I know that ants have wings when it's time to swarm, but there were no swarms of ants around.

 Four-lined plant bug

Bees on milkweed:

Arachnid Appreciation:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Spined micrathena

Possibly a cross spider?