Night Lights

Most nights this week I have spent some time out on the back porch hoping for a glimpse of fireflies. Finally tonight I saw some. There were only a few, which is a bit worrisome, but I was relieved to finally see them. Part of the property we just bought we refer to as "the field," which we have for years referred to as "the field behind our house," but it's not really a field. It used to be, but it has been completely taken over by invasive trees and shrubs. A field is good habitat for fireflies. What "the field" became over the last couple of decades is not. However, we have been working at reclaiming the field from the multiflora rose and autumn olive, and my hope is that it will be good firefly habitat in the future, and that it will foster greater numbers of fireflies, which are in decline in a lot of places due to habitat loss and pesticides. We have a lot of work to do, but I am grateful that the field is ours now, because that means we can actually do it.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 A skipper

Other Bugs:

 Caterpillar

 Here's a good chance to see what I wrote about the other day; this is a looper caterpillar of some kind, and it has only three pairs of prolegs, because it moves in the inchworm fashion, and doesn't need prolegs in the middle. Or maybe it moves in that fashion because it doesn't have prolegs in the middle.

 A pair of weevils. She did not like having him on her back, and somehow managed to shove him off...

 ... but bugs really have no concept of personal space.

Sawfly larvae. You can see the eggs they hatched from. It looks like a couple of them are just emerging.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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Bold jumping spider. That is its species, not at all a reflection of its personality.