Springtail Rain

 Hello again. I found something interesting in my yard today, so here I am to tell you about it. We got a lot of rain today, from the early morning hours until just around noon. I went outside to check the mail around the time the rain stopped, and from the moment I walked out on the porch I saw that there were springtails everywhere. They were on the front steps, on the walkway down to the mailbox, on the yard furniture, on rocks, on the side of the house... everywhere. As I was walking back to the house without the mail (because it had not arrived yet), I happened to glance at our rotting jack o'lantern, sitting on a rock at the edge of the woods where my husband put it when I asked him to move if off the porch (I asked him to do it because it is moldy, and I am allergic to mold, so I didn't want to carry it back to the compost pile. Apparently, he didn't want to carry it back there, either, so it's on a rock in front out the house, grinning at me when I look out), and I wondered if, even though it is collapsing as it decays, it would be full of rain water. I don't know why I thought of that, or why I decided to go over and look inside to see if it was filled with rainwater, but I did, and it was. It was also full of the most springtails I have ever seen crowded together in my life:

So many springtails. And one of these things is not like the others...

There's one of a different species in there. Well, there could be more, that's the one I spotted Where's Waldo style.

Then on my woods walk, I spotted this:

Sorry, cellphone photo. These are snowfleas, another species of springtail, on a bridge over a stream. The stream has been dry for months, with a few pools of water collecting in the rains of the last month, but today it was running because 2.5+ inches over about 8 hours is pretty substantial for us right now.

So there you have it. Masses of springtails, and 3 species.

Gross Post

 I'm going to start here today by posting a couple of pictures of flowers just as a buffer to keep you from seeing what I really am here to post in case you don't want to see it. What I am really here to post today is pretty gross, so this is your chance to just bail without scrolling down to see it. The flowers are here to protect you, don't go past them if you don't want to see the gross thing I took a picture of today.

The chrysanthemums are still blooming, in spite of the frosts we've had. I have been covering the plants, but this one is too far away from the others to be covered by the old sheet I am using, and it is continuing to bloom in spite of being unprotected from the frosts. Ironically, the reason I wasn't covering this one to begin with is because it wasn't doing so well, so I didn't think it mattered whether or not I covered it, because it wasn't going to bloom anyway. And here it is, blooming.

I am going to provide you with a picture of a winter ant on a pumpkin, too, for an extra buffer:

Okay, now for the gross thing, scroll down. I guess it technically counts as Arachnid Appreciation:

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I saw something odd on the driveway when I went out to get the mail today; it looked like a squashed, dead mouse. When I looked at it closer, and poked it with a stick, I realized that it was a squashed, dead mouse. But when I poked it, a whole bunch of mites came swarming out. I went inside to get my camera, even though it is disgusting to photograph a dead mouse, and had to poke it with a stick again to get the mites to come back out. Not as many came out the second time, and they disappeared pretty quickly, but here you go, a picture of mites on a dead mouse. Definitely not something I expected to see in my yard.

What Frost?

 Did you miss me? I know, I know, I have heard that song with the lyrics, "How can I miss you if you won't go away." I just wanted to post the one insect picture I took today. I haven't seen any insects on the chrysanthemums in several days, even though it was pretty warm for a while. Then we had freezes for a few nights, and though I covered the flowers overnight, I didn't expect any insects to visit them. Then today:

Hover fly. I love to see insects with pollen all over their faces; I think it's cute. 

As for other bugs, there was a fly on the side of the house, and those were the only insects I saw today. I heard a couple of crickets in the woods. And with all the rain this week there has been water in some of the stream pools, and a couple of times I have seen predatious water beetles. It's definitely not a buggy time of year. One I won't miss, though, is the mosquitoes; though the frost does not generally kill off the insects, it does kill off those. Not the ticks, however. Yesterday when I was working in the woods I found several crawling up my pantleg–which they are not supposed to do because those pants are treated with tick repellent. It was interesting to find them, though, because it is the first time in months that I have seen any ticks, and those four I saw yesterday may equal all the other ticks I saw this year.

I am still taking my break. Not doing bug walks every day. But I can't help being interested in the life around me. It's a fascinating world.

Taking a Break From My Break

 Okay, I realize that I JUST SAID that I was taking a break from blogging. But I also said I would post if I found something interesting. Now, I realize that that is a low bar, I find a tremendous amount of things interesting, that is why I am so very rarely bored. But I didn't do a bug walk today, I just stopped to look at my chrysanthemums when I went out to get the mail, because they are one of the bright spots in my world right now. And I found a bug there that was not one of the ones that have been there for the past week. So...

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Plant bug, of the order Hemiptera. I wonder if it is feeding on nectar, or if it is simply sucking other fluids from the plant. The dark blur in the background is a sweat bee.

That's it. That's all I took pictures of today. I didn't even take pictures of the other sweat bees that were dining on the chrysanthemums. Because I am taking a break. 

That being said, am I hoping that tomorrow I see some kind of really amazing bug when I go outside? Yes.

An Interlude

 I've decided to take some time off from this blog. Given the time of year, I can't say for how long–we are approaching the time of year when it's too cold for bugs. That has not been the case the last few days, of course, but aside from the ones attracted to the chrysanthemums in the rock garden I haven't been finding many bugs anyway. That is part of the reason I am taking a break. This takes a lot of time, and it's not worth it if I end up with nothing to show for it. Most days I don't even have a Backyard Bug of the Day to show. I have other things I need to devote attention to, and so I am going to do that for the time being. If I happen to end up with a picture of a cool bug on some days, I'll post about it. I don't have much to post bug-wise today, but if you're not averse to snakes, stick around for the end of today's blog post.

 After not being seen for a few days, the march flies were back today:

 

Still only males, though.

 I found a strange situation:

It was hard for me to tell what was going on here. It was either two ants playing tug-o-war over another ant, or one ant dragging two ants. 

It got kind of extreme. These are not winter ants, by the way, but since the temperature has now been in the 70s for a few days, I guess the non-winter ants decided they could come back out.

As is now the case every day, most of the bugs I found, in fact, an overwhelming majority of them, were feeding on the chrysanthemums:

It was mostly sweat bees, lots of sweat bees. Every flower had at least once, with a few gnats thrown in here and there.

There were no hover flies today, but there was one stilt bug.

Backyard Reptile of the Day:

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Definitely a front yard reptile, not a backyard reptile, to be accurate. Here it is slithering under the front porch. Garter snake.

Two Bees, Or Not Two Bees

 It's a good thing that the chrysanthemums are blooming in my rock garden right now, or I wouldn't have found any bugs on my bug walk today. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, I have no idea why bugs weren't frolicking all over the place, but they weren't. So now enjoy a few pictures of bugs on pretty flowers:

Bugs for everyone! Three sweat bees (including the one on the flower in the background) and a hover fly.

Stilt bug

It is interesting that sometimes insects will share the flowers with no problem, but other times they will chase each other away. Like this progression of shots:

Two hover flies...

... one is supplanted by a sweat bee between clicks of the camera...

... and was eventually scared away by a larger sweat bee. The hover fly stayed, but gave the sweat bee a lot of space.

And that's it. I didn't find any other insects to photograph on my bug walk–in fact, I hardly saw any other insects at all. I didn't see even a single march fly. The only other pictures I took were of spiders, and because of the wind, those came out too blurry to post. I was so looking forward to these warm days, hoping the bugs would be out. But it's been just like this whole year–the bugs are just not there, and I don't know where they have gone.

Autumn Blooms

 Today in my backyard, the sun was shining, and the flowers were blooming, the air was warm and everything was lovely. That's a recipe for pollination:

If you plant it, they will come. I haven't seen a bee in weeks, obviously because there has been nothing in my backyard for them to eat since the goldenrod finished blooming (not to mention it was pretty cold some of that time). But now, the chrysanthemums are finally in bloom, and there are bees to feed on them and pollinate them. Where were the bees all this time? How in the world did they know that in my rock garden there are now three flowers in bloom? I have no idea. The blooms attracted several sweat bees and gnats (there were more than you see here). As the days (and nights) continue to be mild for the next week I am very interested in seeing if any more species will be attracted to these few blossoms.

I didn't find much else for Other Bugs:

For as brightly colored as they are, it's amazing how well candy striped leaf hoppers blend in on all kinds of plants.

That's all the pictures that came out (it was very windy again today) and nearly all the bugs I saw. I am very interested to see what the next week or so brings out in my backyard.

Elegance

 Well, today didn't turn out the way I expected, bug-wise. I thought because it was sunny, and close to 70ºF, that there would be a great variety of bugs, and it seemed that way before I went out for my bug walk, when I saw them landing on and flying by the skylight as I did my physical therapy exercises. But I had a hard time finding bugs when I went out with my camera. I mean, I did find bugs, just not the variety that I expected. I saw a lot more swarming march flies (still have not seen a female), and the candy striped leaf hoppers were out sunning themselves. But I didn't even find today's Backyard Bug of the Day on my bug walk, I found it on the back porch when I got back from walking in the woods. It was getting dark, and the porch light was on, and I saw what looked like a leaf hopper on the wall by the door. I wasn't going to bother getting my camera, because I was tired and have a lot on my mind, but I did, and was glad when I saw what was there.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Brown lacewing. I always forget how small these are, smaller than green lacewings. And, as you have figured out by now, about the size of a leafhopper. Not that that helps if you've never seen a leafhopper in person, because I know looking at pictures on this blog don't really give you an accurate sense of size. 

It's quite an elegant little insect, if a tad uncooperative.

Other Bugs:

The number of aphids continues to dwindle. I think they way their weird life cycles work out, they have this winged generation at this time of year so they can disperse and go lay eggs in other places, rather than all together like they have been for months. Wherever they lay their eggs will be like this tree was eventually, covered in aphids as they are born and immediately start producing more of themselves.

Stilt bug

I found this amusing for some reason. It looks like all of these candy striped leaf hoppers are standing in line for something. What they are probably all doing is feeding from the ribs of the leaf.

 

A couple of springtails. After they were everywhere a week or so ago, I haven't found them since, until I found a few on this chair. It was a dangerous place to be, with two spiders nearby, but you'll see those later if you scroll down through Arachnid Appreciation.

 

Planthopper

Weevil

Bristletail. I found out recently that these scuttle across the front walk in the dark of night, so I suppose it should be no shock to find one there in the middle of the afternoon, but it sort of was. Usually even when I have found these on trees in the middle of the day, they tend to be in darker (or at least, shadier) places, not basking in the sun.

Arachnid Appreciation:

Jumping spider

This was an interesting scene. I wondered when I saw these two spiders if this was a potential prey situation, or a potential mating situation (which, actually, with spiders can become a potential prey situation); in a lot of spiders the male and female look different, with the male often a lot smaller than the female. So I watched these two. The smaller one, which would be the male if these are the same species, turned and walked away (upwards, as this picture is arranged) and then made a dash at the larger spider from the side. To my great surprise, the larger spider ran away. And that was the end of the scene. I didn't get an answer to my question, except to say that no one got eaten.

A Buggier Day

 On Monday I didn't do a bug walk because it was too cold. On Tuesday I did a bug walk, but I didn't find anything worth blogging about. Third day's the charm; today was a better day for a bug walk, and the bugs agreed. I found out on my way to get the mail when I walked through a swarm of bugs, and then found another on the porch on my way in. And, there's this:

The buds were damaged by the snow last week, but we've been making sure to cover the chrysanthemums every night when there's a frost, and at least some of the flowers seem to have survived, and will hopefully bloom in the next few days. Whether there are any pollinators left to appreciate them, I don't know. But I am happy to have the flowers. 

 Also, I heard crickets on my bug walk today. I haven't heard them in a few days. I even heard them this evening when I went out to look at the sky. This will be the first night in about a week that it has not threatened to freeze.

 Backyard Bug of the Day:

I think these are fruit flies.

I tried to get a picture of both of them in focus at the same time, but they weren't keen on my presence in the thorn bush where they were.

Other Bugs:

This is the bug I found on the front porch. It was dangling from a thread on the wind chime, and climbing up. If it decided to hide inside the wind chime, I don't think it is going to like it when the wind blows.

 

 

 

The swarm I walked through was male march flies:

I went in to get my camera right away, but by the time I got back, the swarm had dispersed. I saw several small insect swarms today; I think one of them was winter crane flies, but I think the others were march flies. From what I understand, the females rest on the ground or on leaves, and the males swarm, keeping an eye out for mates. Don't use this information as a source if you are writing a report about march flies, because I don't know for sure it that is correct. Anyway, even though I saw a few swarms, I had a hard time finding march flies on a surface so I could photograph one. I still only saw males. This one...

I am absolutely incapable of identifying ants by species, but I do wonder, given that even today's much milder temperature did not reach 60ºF, if this is a winter ant, a species that spends the summer well below ground where it's cool, and only comes up when the temperature drops into the cooler autumn range.

 Candy-striped leaf hoppers were out in great numbers today, basking on leaves, mostly on beech, but these are on wild cherry:

And this ant and leaf hopper are on a winged euonymous.

To give you a sense of how generally buggy the day was, note the tiny gnat on this leaf with the leaf hoppers.

Leafhoppers and crane fly

 

 

I found another species of leafhopper, too.

There are only a couple of leaves left on the back porch tree, and the number of aphids on them has dwindled a great deal, particularly the tiniest ones, but I think that is because they have gotten bigger. This time of year, from what I understand, instead of giving birth to live young, they will lay eggs, which will overwinter and hatch in the spring.

 

Bristletail on the side of the house

 

It seems like I either find no spiders or a whole bunch of spiders, but that is probably because they like the same kind of conditions, and there are just a lot of them in my backyard. So if it is good spider weather, lots of spiders come out. If it's not, none of them do. Arachnid Appreciation:

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Goldenrod crab spider. I saw this one descending onto this leaf on its silk thread. That action used to be one of the things that creeped me out about spiders, but now I find it enchanting, and I love when I see it (except when the spider is using it to escape my camera).
 

I read somewhere once that spiders don't eat ants because ants' formic acid defense is so effective against spiders. Obviously, this is not true. This is the second time in a couple of weeks that I have seen a spider feeding on an ant.

I found this one on the back screen door as I was about to go back into the house.