Mystery Solved

As I was changing my clothes this evening I decided to put on my Porch Light Lepidoptera Lollapalooza t-shirt (as seen here), and that got me thinking about the fact that since we went into lockdown months ago I have not gone out in the evening, so I have not come home in the dark, so there has been no reason to turn on the front porch light, and therefore no gathering of insects that are attracted to the porch light. I decided that tonight I would turn on the porch light this evening to see what was might come along, drawn to the light.

And among those to show up was a bug I was hoping to see on Sunday (for personal reasons). I didn't see it then, so maybe I should have turned on the porch light that night. It's a perfect choice for Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

Green lacewing

As for the other bugs attracted to the lights, it was mostly small moths, flying frenetically around the light. And cockroaches:

In fact, the first time I went out to check it was only cockroaches that had shown up. These aren't the icky ones that invade kitchens, and they are beneficial to the natural world, being decomposers. And I think they are kind of cool looking. But it was a bit of a letdown to only have cockroaches come to the light.

I went out later, and in addition to the many tiny moths, and the green lacewing, there were a few other insects:

Crane fly, female

Moth

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Sharpshooter. I chose this as Co-Bug of the Day because I have a policy that if I get a decent picture of this species it becomes BBotD, just because it's so hard to get a good picture of these.

A small mystery was solved today:

I figured out why there were a bunch of caterpillars in the hole in the wooden sculpture yesterday. I saw this was go into the hold and realized that the caterpillars had been brought there by the wasp to feed its young. Some species of wasps are predatory against caterpillars. They make a burrows to lay eggs in, and they stock them up with paralyzed caterpillars (paralyzed by their venom) as food for their young to eat when they hatch.

Note the mud along the side. It looks like more caterpillars have been added since yesterday, and the mud...

... caps the whole thing off to protect the egg/larva from other predators. This picture was taken about half an hour after the previous one.

Other Bugs:

This beetle was still hanging out on the black-eyed Susan...

... until this bee chased it away. It only scurried to the underside of the petal.

Moth

Fly

  I am not sure if this is a spittle bug, or some other kind of Hemiptera.

Robber fly feeding on a gnat

Caterpillar. I am too tired to look it up; it probably becomes some kind of drab, brown moth anyway.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Harvestman

Jumping spider

This is the bowl and doily spider that had so many suitors a couple of days ago. Today she was alone in her web. I couldn't help but wonder if she ate any of those males.