The Big Day

 I took my camera to the woods today to try to make up for yesterday, and hoping to find a couple of the bugs I saw then, and though I only found one of yesterday's bugs, I found a surprising number of insects in the woods today. No frogs, no turkeys, and no butterflies, but it was definitely worth having a camera on my walk.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #1:

Mayfly. My husband spotted one, and then I found another, and another... Even if you've never seen a mayfly, and don't know what they look like (see above), you've probably heard about them. They famously only live for about a day or so after they reach their adult stage, leave the water where they spent the majority of their lives (about a year) as larvae, spread their newly acquired wings and fly. I've seen pictures of rivers and streams with huge swarms of them that have just emerged and have a day to find a mate before they die. Some of the larvae I have been seeing in the stream were likely mayfly larvae. And today was obviously THE day for some of them.

Mostly I found them on the underside of leaves...

But I found a swarm of them dancing above the stream:

In most of the flying pictures you can't see the wings, which are obviously beating very fast, but this shot caught a glimpse.

I think this is a pair that made a connection.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Moth fly, which is a fly, not a moth. Tiny, and a rare sight for me. It's even rarer for me to get a picture, so whenever I do, it becomes Backyard Bug of the Day.

Other Bugs:

My photos today began just outside my back door, where ants are once again tending to flocks of aphids on the tree that is growing through the back porch.

Then, into the woods...

I hoped I could find yesterday's caterpillar again, and I did, not on the same leaf, but on the same small tree. These caterpillars' defense strategy is to look like bird droppings, and when you disturb them they add some dramatics to the masquerade, draping themselves over the edge of whatever twig or leaf they are on, so they look even MORE like bird droppings. 

Moth hiding in leaf litter

I'm not sure what this is. It has the face of an ant; it could be a winged ant. It could also be a wasp.

Beetle. Possibly a soldier beetle.

I am guessing some kind of seed bug (being the lazy blogger that I am). Definitely Hemiptera.

Caterpillar

Click beetle

Due to spiders being an uncooperative cohort, here is just a sample of what I saw today for Arachnid Appreciation:

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I could say something about the different hunting styles of the spiders I have here, but I am too tired. There's some variety. There.