Forecasters

I sometimes suspect that insects can forecast the weather. Take today, for instance. It was pretty much like yesterday temperature-wise, and lack-of-sunshine-wise, but yesterday there were a lot of bugs around and today very few. The difference in the two days was that yesterday it rained very early in the morning, and today it didn't start raining until the middle of the afternoon (while I was doing my bug walk). And I have to wonder–did the insects know yesterday that the rain was done, so they could come out of their shelters, but today they knew that rain was imminent, and so they had taken cover?

There is no way for me to find this out, so I am going to go on wondering about this forever...

 This was the point when I realized that perhaps I was going to have to hurry along on my bug walk.

Case in point, re: the bugs were not out today:

 The flowering crab apple is finally in bloom, and I could find, through the senses of sight and sound, only one bee feeding on the nectar of that glorious bounty of flowers. What possible reason could the bees have for not taking advantage of this splendid buffet? Could it be that they knew it was going to start pouring soon, and they decided to stay cozied up somewhere dry?

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Robber fly

That's quite a snout.

 I always enjoy being able to capture moments when insects are doing something other than just sitting around...

 Like this...

 Sawfly larva

Conspicuously (to me) absent from yesterday's gathering of beetles was this species:

 They have been hanging around the rock garden all week, and yet I didn't see any yesterday.

 

 You know the horrible feeling of having something in your eye, and needing to get rid of it right away?

 

 How is this bug able to stand that?!?

I used to pick flowers a lot when I was a kid, including dandelions, and I don't remember ever seeing them covered with ants. How in the world did I miss that?

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 The spider didn't see it, but that dark blob was a gnat. It could have had that for lunch.

 Since we're on the topic of wondering things, or we were, I wonder why some species of spiders line up their previous prey down the middle of their webs like this. It always looks to me like it makes the web really obvious. And yet, I saw a moth fly right into this web as I was looking at it. The moth got away. It is surprising to me how often I see insects crash into spider webs and then fly off like it was nothing. Apparently the webs are not as effective as I always was led to believe.

 

 Mite