Backyard Edutainment

Today was a highly entertaining, educational, and interesting day in the backyard. For me, anyway, and it is possible that I am easily entertained, educated, and interested. Where to begin?

How about the weirdly entertaining Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

 This probably just proves I am easily entertained, because this is just a toad sitting on a rock. But for some reason I found that amusing; I was walking my backyard paths, turned a corner, and there was a toad sitting on a big rock. It just looked odd to me; what was it doing up there? I wish I had seen it jump up.

 Also odd, but not in an entertaining way, was that it looked... ill? I don't know why its side is sunken in like that.

 Also odd was the fact that it didn't care how close I got with my camera.

 Didn't care at all.

 Not one bit. And this, I should remind you, is with a macro lens–to get a close-up picture with a macro lens you actually have to get up close.

 

 It hopped off the rock after I moved back, but even then it just hopped in the grass and sat there.

Mildly strange:

 

 These flowers have been in bloom for weeks, and I never see insects on them. Usually these attract huge bumblebees, butterflies, and hummingbird moths. This year... nothing.

Now for some entertaining Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day#1:

 Barklouse nymphs. I spotted this as a clump of tiny dots on a tree trunk. I thought it might be insect eggs, or newly hatched stinkbugs. Up close I recognized them. I took a couple of shots, and then pulled back to adjust my camera, and that is when they got entertaining...

 Even though they didn't move while I was getting up close to take the first picture, when I moved back they suddenly zoomed apart...

 ... and after a moment's disorganized, scattered rushing they started to move back together...

 ... and then started moving sort of like a herd. I don't think I have ever seen insects move quite like that.

 Also intriguing: why is there one that is so much smaller than the others?

 Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

 I don't care what anyone says about Paul McCartney, the red milkweed beetle is the cutest beetle. I have been on the lookout for these, and am happy to have finally found one.

Other Bugs:

 Cocoon on black-eyed Susan.

 This was another entertaining scene. Sure, it's just a bee on goldenrod...

 ... but what was amusing to me was the moment it walked right over an ambush bug. Not the ambush bug's best moment, I would think.

 Leaf hopper. I can never remember the name...

 Thick-headed fly

 Leaf hopper

This is an entertaining creature as well:

 It looks like just a blob of fluff in the picture, but this is a walking blob of fluff, and that is always amusing.

 It is a lacewing larva; it carries all that detritus as camouflage.

Now for an educational moment:

 I spotted this moth on the underside of a milkweed leaf...

 ... and realized she was laying eggs. Interesting, but not necessarily educational, except for seeing insect eggs that look unlike any I have seen before.

 The educational part came about an hour later, when I was done with my bug walk and and done some yard work, and was just sitting on the back porch steps, cooling off...

 ... and that is when I found out that wasps eat moths. I never knew that before. I am not sure I even knew that wasps were insectivorious at all in their adult stages.

 Robber fly

 I have seen this fly hanging around on the side of the house for the last week or so. Here it is on a tarp.

More educational moments:

 I mentioned that I am taking an online course about insects; last week's unit was about insect locomotion, and one of the chapters was about specialized insect legs, such as saltatorial legs for jumping, and natatorial legs for swimming. There are also fossorial legs for digging–front legs that are sort of wide and scoop-like. The example given was the mole cricket, but then it said that cicada nymphs also have them–cicadas spend most of their lives in the nymph stage, living underground, so digging is what they do. I didn't know this at the time I found a cicada case last week, but when I found this one today I made sure to check out its fossorial legs.

 Hopper nymph

 I learned about wings, too, but to explain about this wing would be too much work right now. Suffice to say, it doesn't fold up.

Caterpillar on black-eyed Susan.

Mysterious Flowers

There is something of a puzzling mystery in my backyard. I see insects on my purple coneflowers, but the insects I see there are all either pollinators or predators. I have not seen any insects that actually eat the flowers. So why do my coneflowers look like this?:

 Something is eating the flowers, but why do I never see anything eating the flowers? I wonder that about a lot of plants; I see plants with a lot of insect damage, but why don't I see what is damaging them?

Backyard Bird of the Day:

I don't know what this bird is.

Backyard Bugs of the Day:

 Newly hatched lacewing larvae

Have you been wondering how to find monarch caterpillars? Sure, it's pretty easy when they get big, like this:

I was surprised to find this one today on the plant where the two dueling caterpillars had been; I thought they were gone yesterday (which belies my statement that they are easy to find at this size). But this might be another one from another plant that disappeared today.

But how to find caterpillars when they are newly hatched or only a few days old? They hatch on the underside of leaves, and are extremely tiny, but you don't have to look under every leaf trying to find tiny caterpillars. You can look for leaf damage from the top of the leaf:

 If you see this from the top...

 ... you might see this underneath.

 Or this on the top...

 ... could reveal this underneath.

This is not a technique I have ever used to find monarch caterpillars, but I happened upon it today:

 A defense tactic that caterpillars use sometimes is to launch themselves off of a plant when they are disturbed, using a silk safety line, which they then climb back up to where they were when the threat has passed. They also disperse by sending out a silk thread to catch on the wind, but given the other habits of monarch caterpillars, particularly that they have only one host plant, so wouldn't want to risk landing somewhere where they could not get milkweed, I am pretty sure that that is not what was going on here.

 

 I had a hard time finding any milkweed tussock moth caterpillars today. I only found these two from Brood #1...

... and only a couple from Brood #2. I didn't see any from Brood #3.

 

 Long legged fly

There was a bit of drama when I was watching this bee on a purple coneflower:

 It was feeding on nectar, when suddenly...

... something landed on its back! Of course, I didn't not see what it was at the time, though I witnessed it through my camera. It seemed like the bee flew away with the other bug on its back, but the pictures tell a different story. Anyway, this appears to be a thickheaded fly. Some species of thickheaded flies, though they feed on pollen from flowers, lay their eggs on (in?) bees or wasps. I don't know if that's what was happening here, or if this was just a crash. It happened very quickly...

 ... and though I thought the bee flew off with the fly on its back, this photo shows that the fly flew off on its own. The bee took off so immediately after that they seemed to go off together, which makes this photo something of a miracle of timing.

 This wood nymph butterfly landed on my arm for a fraction of a second, and it tickled, giving me goosebumps all up my arm.

 The butterflies continue to be uncooperative.

Moth