Playing Pretend

 I didn't have a lot of time for a bug walk today, because I had an appointment this afternoon, but I figured it wouldn't matter because I didn't expect to find anything. For quite a while it was looking like that was going to hold true, as I made my way through the first two quadrants of my backyard paths (I have mentally divided my backyard into quadrants) without seeing much. Then, suddenly, there were bugs. I almost didn't make it to my appointment on time. Sometimes I am happy to be wrong. 

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Looper caterpillar, pretending to be a twig. It was a pretty convincing impression.

Lately I have been outside on many evenings and have come to the conclusion that there is not a bird that shelters under the nest on the wreath on the front porch every night. But it was there tonight. And this time it completely ignored me when I went out with my camera to get a picture of it. It did not poke its head out, and it did not fly away. It just stayed tucked up underneath the nest:

I got quite close to it. No reaction. I don't even know if it knew I was there; it certainly did not appear to.

Other Bugs:

Two years ago I planted some perennial mums so that I could have late-blooming flowers, but not have to plant new ones every year, because I am lazy and hate gardening. The problem is, they are too-late-blooming. The flowers haven't opened yet. Last year they had not quite fully bloomed when the first hard frost hit, and it looks like that's going to happen again this year. The flowers aren't open yet, and later this week we're expecting overnight temperature in the mid-20s. I am frustrated and annoyed about this. I will try covering the plants to protect them, but I don't know how low the temperature can go and still have that work. For now, this aphid has camped out on this flower stem. If an insect feeds on the fluids in a plant other than nectar, it doesn't matter to them if the flower is in bloom or not.

That is definitely the opinion of these plant bugs, which are suddenly everywhere. I am not sure if this year is the first time I have seen them, but it is certainly the first time they have been so abundant:

The plant bug was not alone on this goldenrod. Can you see the other insect? I think there were actually two case moth caterpillars (only one is shown in this picture), but it's sometimes hard to tell.

I found them on a variety of plants, not just the goldenrod where I have been seeing them quite a bit lately:

The bees and wasps have abandoned this aster, but the plant bugs don't care that the flowers have past their bloom.

I think a winged ant

Crane fly

An good view of a large milkweed bug's proboscis.

 A two-fer–a caterpillar and a bee on the same plant:

Wasp. Or bee?

Still a few candy striped leaf hoppers on the last leaf, and the catkins, of this black birch branch.

More ants have arrived to attend to the aphids on the back porch tree:

There are a few more with wings, too.