Mosquitoes Bite

Today I read an article about fireflies, and it mentioned that they grace us with their light for 3-6 weeks in the summer. But lately, I am suddenly seeing them again, only this time it is their larvae. A couple of times recently (and I posted pictures of it last week) I have seen a green glow on the ground at night from a firefly larva. Then tonight, we came home after dark and there were a bunch of them glinting on the ground. Again I failed to get a picture of the glow; they are too faint for my camera to pick up, particularly when they are moving, but using my camera light I got some pictures of one crawling on the front walk:

Today I chose something I probably shouldn't have for Backyard Bug of the Day:

 A mosquito. The world's most dangerous insect. It is a vector for many dangerous diseases, at least some of them are. I couldn't figure out what species this was from my books. It could be dangerous, it could be harmless. You can see that this one is feeding on goldenrod nectar. It doesn't appear to have feathery antennae, so I think it's probably a female; those are the ones that bite. (Though I will reiterate that not all species bite humans).

Or maybe they are feathery? I don't know that much about mosquitoes, except that they bite. I have been a victim of a mosquito-borne illness myself, a long time ago. So why did I make this horrible creature Backyard Bug of the Day?

Because I was mesmerized by those eyes.

 Because I thought that looked cool.

 They do this funny thing where they raise their legs up and down. I don't know why.

This year I have seen more crickets in my backyard than I have ever seen before. Today they were all over:

 This one was in the grass...

These were all over the rock garden:

 

 Along with other insects. Lots of ants, and this one potato beetle.

 And grasshoppers, there are still a lot of grasshoppers. The rock garden is very popular with insects that are not pollinators. There are no flowers there, but there is obviously something that all of these other insects want.

 

 

 There were crickets all over the backyard, though. As decomposers, I wonder if dead flowers like this purple coneflower are appealing as food, or if this cricket just happened to be hanging out there.

This one is missing one of its back legs.

For the other insects in the backyard today (like the above mosquito), goldenrod was more popular:

 Wasp

 Stinkbug

 Banded tussock moth caterpillar

 I think this woolly bear is dead. I don't know why there are so many dead and dying caterpillars in my backyard this year.

 Buffalo leaf hopper

 Green stinkbugs don't blend in as well once the leaves begin to change.

 Sweat bee

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Micrathena? A couple of weeks ago I almost walked face-first into this spider, whose web was across a path. Since that day the web has not been in that spot, but today it was there and I walked right through it–not at face level this time.

Nursery web spiders:

Flower crab spider. This seems like an awkward way to go about getting something to eat, but I see them doing it, so it must work. I mean I see them dangling like this, I have never actually seen a spider catch prey this way.