Summer Nighttime

Though I had my first sighting of fireflies one night last week, tonight was the first night when there was a profusion of them flickering in my backyard. All of the other times I have gone out to watch them there were only one or two, and some nights there were none. Tonight there were many, uncountable, obviously, and their light show was set to the orchestration of crickets, and it was about the most summer thing I can think of. Funny that I spent so much of my life thinking I didn't like bugs, when two of my favorite things about summer were bugs.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

 Finally! A butterfly! Small wood satyr.

 The butterfly was somewhat cooperative...

But this moth...

 Well, I've already explained about this moth.

Other Bugs:

 I think this is a species of robber fly. Eating an aphid.

 Look at those incredible eyes!

I found this moth on the ground, beating its wings madly, but not flying anywhere:

 Ant with what appears to be a chrysalis.

 Squash bug

After my forest walk I sat on a stone wall for a while in an area that my husband was clearing today, and these dragonflies kept coming and going, landing on the brush pile my husband was creating:

 I wish I'd had my regular camera instead of my phone.

Arachnid Appreciation:
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 Orchard orb weaver. The bit of fluff to the right is from a tree that released its seeds this week to be carried away on the wind in bits of cottony fluff. All over the backyard are spiderwebs full of the stuff.

 I'm going to guess this is a crab spider, but this is all I saw of it. On milkweed.