Enjoyment

I've been enjoying a bit of arachno-centric entertainment today. I watched the latest Dr. Who episode, which was about spiders (and really awesome, though probably terrifying for arachnophobes), read a couple of articles online about spiders, and spent some time watching the jumping spider that currently lives in my bathroom. I am glad I replaced fear with fascination regarding spiders. Not even so much because it's great to be rid of fear–I was never that afraid of spiders, more just mildly unnerved by them. But they are such fascinating little creatures that I now realize what I was missing all those years when I would squish them on sight instead of watching them to see what they're up to. I am sorry, spiders, for whatever I inflicted on you in the past. Dr Who, by the way, and probably predictably, was pro-spider in this episode. She definitely was not for squishing them.

In spite of all that ruminating, I don't have a lot of spiders to show you today, and as usual, what I have will be at the end of the blog, so no need to flee yet, arachnophobes.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 I think this might be a new species of leaf hopper for me. It looks like a bleached candy striped leaf hopper, but I am pretty sure it's a different species.

Other Bugs:

 I haven't seen a white hickory tussock moth caterpillar in a while, but this one was walking along the back porch steps when I went out today.

 If you look closely you can see that there's a pretty big chunk out of this leaf hopper's elytron. Another insect battered by the end of the season.

 Plume moth

 Ladybeetle

The rove beetles were swarming on that rock again:

 There were some skirmishes.

 I believe that there were some beetles that were interested in courtship, but they were unable to find another beetle that wanted to go along with that.

 Rove beetles tuck in their wings by lifting up their back ends, and today I discovered that they also do that to shove off unwanted suitors.

 If it was actually true that you could forecast what kind of winter is coming by the bands of color on a woolly bear caterpillar, and wider black bands meant a hard winter ahead, we'd be in trouble.

Mom, scroll fast past the next two pictures:

Oddly, I don't often see the faces of woolly bear caterpillars, because they keep them kind of bent down most of the time, but this one was nibbling on the grass.

Close up of the face.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Two jumping spiders were the only spiders I saw today (outside my bathroom):