At last, allowing milkweed flowers to take over most of my lawn has borne fruit. And by fruit I actually mean an insect–specifically a caterpillar. Though, going off on yet another bad analogy, you could say that the caterpillar is actually the flower, and the resultant butterfly will be the fruit. But I mustn't count my chickens before they hatch, or in this case, eclose from a chrysails–most caterpillars don't end up as butterflies. They end up as dinner for a bird, which, following another metaphor I read earlier, means that they actually become birds. Because in a reversal of 'you are what you eat,' you become what eats you.
And on that morbid metaphysical note, here's Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:
Monarch caterpillar. Based on the location, and size, not the one from the egg I found (which I am pretty sure was eaten. Not only do most caterpillars not end up as butterflies, most eggs don't end up as caterpillars, a statistic that applies to many insects). It's a pretty early instar, but not so early that it was difficult to see–and yet, I only found it from seeing leaf damage on the milkweed plant, because at this stage they mostly hang out on the underside of leaves. But I recognized the kinds of holes in the leaves, and knew to look underneath. However, the plant had similar damage on several leaves; fortunately I persevered and checked them all even though the first several did not reveal any caterpillars. I don't know if there were other caterpillars that are not there now, or if something else made the holes. Anyway, I was excited to see this one, first of the year.
Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:
This is a new species for me. I thought (think) it's some kind of furcula, but I wasn't able to find it in my book. It didn't wave its forked tail at me in self-defense, which is a little disappointing, because that's the cool thing about furcula caterpillars.
Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #3:
Horsefly
I think this is a female, which means this is one of the ones that bite. I think these have been around the last few days, because I have heard them flying behind and around me, but they keep disappearing before I can get a good look at them. Today this one landed on my hand. Then she let me get a few pictures.
Three Backyard Co-Bugs of the Day is probably too many, but some days I just don't know what to pick. And in contrast to other days when I don't really have anything good, today I had several–more even than the three that were chosen.
Other Bugs:
Planthopper and ant
Small wood satyr butterfly. I am still seeing these all over, every day. They flit around the milkweed patch all the time, but I never see them actually land there.
Weevil resting on an oak gall
Tulip-tree beauty caterpillar, on sassafras
Some kind of Hemiptera nymph
Okay, I had to post ONE picture of bumblebees on milkweed. It's interesting that even when it was raining, the just kept up the feeding frenzy.
Have I mentioned how hard it is to take pictures of this species of thick-headed flies?
Weird that I have seen so few spiders lately...
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