Damsels and Dragons

Summer sort of comes and goes lately. Monday was the unofficial start of summer, or what I call Social Summer, which begins on Memorial Day, and it was hot last weekend, but then it was much cooler all week, and often raining, until today. Today the blue skies and the summery warmth were back. I liked it, and so did the bugs.

The Order of the Day is Odonata.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

 Damselfly. I actually saw two of these today, but this is the only one I was able to photograph.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 Dragonfly. I think this is a new species for me; I don't remember seeing one with those color eye.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:

Not from the order Odonata, but I think this is a cool picture of a cool bug, so here it is. I think this is a midge, a male one. It was on the storm door when we got home this evening.

Other Bugs:

 Beetle with some kind of wing problem.

 The ants seem to have herded the aphids closer together on this sapling.

 Assassin bug adult

Assassin bug nymph

 Crane fly with mite

 Hoverfly

 Hopper nymph

 Katydid nymph

 Caterpillar

 Moth.

 Sawfly

 If you look at the leaf below the flower where this bumblebee is you'll see an ant. The ant was on the flower, but when the bee came along it bumped it off.

 Ladybeetle

 Honeysuckle borers.

 Beetle

 This is the first bumblebee I have seen in at least a week, I think. I did not notice when I took the picture that there appear to be legs of an insect or perhaps an arachnid on the other side of the flower the bee is feeding on.

 Sawfly larvae

 Weevil

In addition to the midge that is BBotD, there were quite a lot of other insects on the front porch when we got home this evening. Most of them were flying around, or at least refusing to sit still for a picture, but I got a few:

 

 

 

 Beetle on the porch light

Ichneumon wasp

I'm still not sure if this is a firefly. I have not seen any lighting up in the backyard yet this year.

Crane fly

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Bird in the Bush

I don't really have anything to say that doesn't have to do with the weather, and I hate that I start my blog with comments about the weather so often so... here's something surprising that I encountered today...

Backyard Bird of the Day:

 I was watching a bee, waiting to see if it would land, when I heard a rustle near my feet. I assumed it was a chipmunk, and looked to see what was there, and was very surprised to see that it was a bird.

 It did not seem panicky at all, or try to hide deeper in the underbrush as I moved plant stems out of the way to get a better look. I think it is probably a fledgling, and it was hiding from predators while its parents were out looking for food to feed it. I am not any good at bird identification, and I certainly am not able to identify juveniles, which generally look at least a little different from their parents, but it kind of looks like a sparrow, and I do sometimes see sparrows delving into the thicket in that part of the backyard.

 I resisted the very strong urge to pet it.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Some kind of beetle. This might be a new species for me.

Other Bugs:

 Beetle

 Buffalo tree hopper

There were hoverflies everywhere again today:

 Wings open...

 ... wings closed.

And since I said I hardly ever see adult assassin bugs of this species, I have seen them all over my backyard:

 

 Weirdly, I have not been seeing the nymphs lately, but I found one today.

Bees have also been scarce lately, maybe because it has been cold, overcast, and rainy? But I saw several today:

 Two caterpillars, one bad, one good.

 The gypsy moth appears to be dead, on top of an empty cocoon... perhaps it was the victim of a parasitic wasp?

 White marked tussock moth caterpillar. It looks like its yellow tufts are starting to develop.

 Lace bug and looper caterpillar

 Aphids.

 Ant and plant hopper

 Ant dangling from one leg while feeding from a flower.

 The mosquitoes have arrived this week. Not that I missed them, but I have been wondering where they were.

 I know it's a bad picture, but I didn't get a better one of this. That's an adult candy striped leaf hopper, and a tiny nymph of some kind of hopper.

 Tiny beetle

 Crane fly

 Grape leaf roller moth

 Long legged fly

 These katydid eggs look quite old, probably not from this year. I suspect they were not hatched, but preyed upon, based on the holes in them.

Ground beetle that snuck into the house.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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