Rainy Relief

I thought I would not be doing a bug walk or a blog post today because for the first time in weeks, it rained!

It wasn't as much as we needed, but it's something. It cleared up by the early evening, so I went out with my camera.

I found a new bug, and it wins an award for acting as well as being Backyard Bug of the Day:

It's not dead. It's just pretending to be dead, so I won't eat it. There was never any chance of that, but somehow I can't ever convince the bugs of that.

Oh, look, it's moving its legs. I guess it's fine.

But not cooperative.

It's a beetle. I haven't tried to look it up.

Other Bugs:

For a while I thought all I was going to find today was caterpillars. It's hard to tell in this picture, or maybe impossible to tell, but this one was sheltering under a layer of webbing.

The eastern tiger swallowtail caterpillar was exactly where I saw it yesterday, like it hasn't even moved. Any maybe it hasn't.

Long-legged fly

Crane fly. Female.

Firefly, hanging out, waiting for darkness

I saw quite a few bumblebees...

Some were sheltering from the weather...

... but others were busy collecting nectar. This one is on milkweed.

This one looks like it may have been caught in the rain.

 Plant hopper nymph

Egg, covered in a droplet of rain. I don't know what kind of egg this is.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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