Night Music

This morning I was talking to my husband out the window while I was upstairs in the house and he was in the backyard. During our conversation I saw four butterflies and a dragonfly. One of the butterflies landed on the grass right next to him and stayed there long enough that if he had had a camera in his hand he could have taken quite a few shots of it. When I went out for my bug walk I saw another dragonfly and so many butterflies I lost count of how many I had seen for the day. But don't expect to see pictures of any of them. I'm telling you I saw them so you know what it was like in my backyard today. Lovely, but from a photography standpoint pretty frustrating.

Oh, and tonight the crickets are singing, the first time I have heard them this year. I love it when these nighttime concerts resume.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Katydid nymph

Other Bugs:

 A rare sighting of an adult assassin bug. I see nymphs of this species all the time–I saw several of them today–but I hardly ever see the adults for some reason.

 Twice-stabbed lady beetle

 Syrphid fly

 Weevil

 A different species of syrphid fly–which is a hover fly

 Most of the white marked tussock moth caterpillars have dispersed; there are only a few left.

 Leaf hopper

 Here it is excreting a drop of honeydew.

 Aphid. I know everyone hates aphids, but I think they're kind of cute and interesting.

 And look at those gorgeous wings!

 Caterpillar

 Wasp on the storm door after dark.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Note the random insect leg to the right of the jumping spider. I don't know if the spider had anything to do with that–they don't "eat" their prey, per say, their venom liquifies their innards, and the spider sucks out that liquid. But the animal's body is left intact. An insect could lose a leg in the struggle, though. Or the leg could be there for some other reason unrelated to the spider.

 Daddy-long-legs/harvestman