Day and Night Bugs

 I went on two bug walks today. The first was in the afternoon, and I not only went over my usual bug walk areas in my backyard, but into the woods, too, checking out ponds and streams for interesting living things. Then I did another bug walk after dark, bringing my real camera with its ring light and a photography assistant (my husband) with a very bright flashlight to illuminate my subjects. Both walks were quite enjoyable, with sunshine and 68ºF in the afternoon, and a pleasant evening later. I found a goodly number of bugs by both day and night. Winter might be planning a comeback next week, but today it was spring, and there were bugs out enjoying it.

It's funny, though, that I am so often successful in taking photographs of the tiniest things living in my backyard, but have such a difficult time getting pictures of the largest animals. Here's a rare photo for me:

Usually when I see deer in the woods I find out that they are there because I have frightened them into fleeing; I notice them when they go bounding away, much more noisily than you might expect. They blend into the woods extremely well. That's how I saw these two, too, but being so far away from me, they didn't go far at first, just moved away until they saw that I was walking in a direction that was not toward them. They stood and cautiously watched me for a while, and then calmly walked away.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Wasp

Backyard Bug of the Night:

I think this is a ground beetle. Interestingly, I found two of them. Both of them were spotted by my husband, so I will give credit where credit is due. They were not in proximity to each other. I wonder how many of them are out there now, wandering over the 35 or so acres of woods in the dark, mild night...

So, what else did I see today ( and tonight)? Quite a decent number of Other Bugs:

Okay, there's no bugs here. For some reason I found it amusing that the two birch catkins are still in the same spot on the front walk, but their doppleganger, the caterpillar, was no longer there, because, of course, a caterpillar can walk away, but birch catkins cannot. However, further down the walk...

 

... I found the caterpillar. I am a little surprised, if it's the same caterpillar, that it is still hanging around two days later. There's nothing for it to eat on the stone front walk. Also interesting is that I walked by at the end of my night walk and it was still out on the walk, but had moved again.

Winter ant. I saw them here and there on my walk. There was one tree that had several of them up too high for me to photograph, but mostly they were out on their own.

I saw snowfleas on  this rock where they like to gather, and a lot of trees:

But it wasn't just winter insects today:

I have come to think of twice-stabbed lady beetles as a sign of spring. I saw a couple of them today.

I've kept an eye out on milder, sunny days for candy striped leaf hoppers on their favored tree species, because in past winters I have found them on such days, but not so this winter. I finally found a few today.

 

Winter fireflies were out and about, and many of them were active, instead of just sitting on tree trunks, so I got shots of their heads, which I don't usually see because they keep them tucked under their pronota when they are at rest:

The small pond is a dynamic environment, different almost every day. It's size changes, swelling and shrinking based on when we last had rain, and how much. There are grass-like plants growing in it, and lots of other organic debris floating on or clogging it. Right now there is a coating of what looks like pollen. It's a disgusting soup, but I have lately realized that it is teeming with tiny, living things. Unfortunately, the water is low now, and there's a muddy space around the edge that keeps me from getting a good look in the water. But today I spotted this:

There could be a thousand living things in this picture, but the one I took it for is the big water beetle in the middle.

A good look at how it uses its legs like oars.

The stoneflies are feisty lately. I missed the exciting moment, but the stonefly charged at and briefly tangled with the winter firefly as the latter walked up the tree trunk.

Midge, female

Tiny fly attracted to sap on a tree trunk

The big pond was full of life:

There's A LOT going on here.

Some kind of larva...

 

But it's not alone:

I don't know what any of this is, except the beetle. 

 

The trees in and around the pond were dripping sap into the water:

Stonefly caught in a tiny eddy in the stream

 

 

Caddisfly larva:

The distortion is due to the fact that I took the picture through water that was flowing.

 

Those are the bugs I saw during the day. Now for the bugs I saw at night:

I found the big beetle in the small pond again, but this time instead of zooming all around, as it had done during the day, it just sat near the surface of the water.

 

Meanwhile, in the big pond...

It doesn't look like much, but it is alive, and moving, and there were a lot of them there, among the many other things swimming around.

Have fun spotting some aquatic insects and other arthropods:

One of the larger species of springtail

I found these beetles on several trees.

One of the reasons I went for my night walk was to see if there would be moths attracted to the tree that was oozing sap again. There was very little sap today, but there were moths. Several of them dropped to the ground when we approached and shone our flashlights on them:

There were several species on the tree trunk:

 Meanwhile, in the stream:

Really long caddisfly case, with the larva's head sticking out.

Look near the upper edge of the picture, toward the left. There is some other kind of larva there. Because it is so close to the edge of the picture I couldn't get the magnifier to show it well, but it's kind of interesting looking.

 Arachnids I DON'T Appreciate:

Ticks. I killed them before the insect-repelling pants could work on them.

I saw a LOT of spiders today, different species, and in different situations. Arachnid Appreciation:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

With the warm weather this week, spiders that prowl in the leaf litter have come out into the open:

There were also tiny spiders all over the backyard and woods:

 

Mite

I found this spider under some coyote poop. I swear the reason for that is not as gross as it sounds. That is some of the poop on the right and bottom of the picture.

I found this spider on a rock by the small pond on my night walk.

I spotted my first snake of the season. Backyard Reptile of the Day:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

An immature snake. This was the best look I got of it as it slowly disappeared. I don't know what kind it was.