An Insect Anniversary

 Around this time every year–and by around this time I mean often on this very date–I see a particular bug. I see it only for a few seconds, and I only see it once. It hovers near the post of the mailbox, and then it flies away. Some years I happen to get a picture–often with my iPod or phone camera, if I see the bug when I am not on my bug walk. The first time I saw it was 9 years ago today–August 6, 2012, which is the first year I started photographing bugs in my backyard, having received a macro lens for my birthday the previous autumn. (Back then it did not occur to me to go out looking for bugs to photograph at that time of year, so I waited until spring to start searching for bugs willing to model for my camera). The first time I saw one, we were in the car, leaving on a short trip, and I saw the bug by the mailbox as we were about to pull out of the driveway. I asked my husband to wait, and I got out of the car and got one shot of the bug with my iPod. It was a terrible picture, out of focus, and knowing so little about bugs then I thought it might be some kind of moth. Now, 9 years later, I know better; I know that it is a fly. When I saw it today on the 9th anniversary of the first time I ever saw one, I finally got a nice, close-up picture, because it sat still (on a pile of shingles on my front porch, not on the mailbox post) while I went in the house and got my camera, and then stayed still long enough for me to take several pictures. 

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Tiger bee fly. I had to look it up, again, because seeing it only once a year means I don't remember the name. I am pretty sure the first time I saw one (when I thought it might be a moth) I didn't even own a single insect field guide.This is by far the best year ever for me photographing these. I never knew before that they are so pretty, and have blue and purple sparkliness in the fuzz on their backs. You probably can't tell from the picture, but these are pretty big flies, probably close to an inch across that wing base.

According to Kaufman's Field Guide to Insects of North America, flies of this genus can often be found hovering near potential nesting sites of their hosts (as parasitic insects), which are wasps, which explains why I usually see them around the mailbox post. Wasps have built nests in the mailbox post several times.

 The back porch tree (which might be a poplar) is a bit of an ecosystem all on its own (which, really, I think most trees are). I have mentioned before that it has a lot of aphids, and the ants that attend to them. But there's a lot more going on than that:

I don't have pictures today of the ants and the aphids, but I have talked before about the ants protecting the aphids because they want the honeydew–a sugary secretion–that the aphids produce. There are a LOT of aphids on this tree, and they produce a lot of honeydew, and so it basically coats all the leaves. That causes a fungus to grow on the leaves (which is the black spots you see here). It also attracts other insects that want to eat the honeydew residue (or maybe the fungus?), like this wasp you see here...
 

 But look at that picture above again; there's another insect there, and it is not there for the honeydew...

Green lacewing larva, disguising itself as a ball of fluff as it hunts for aphids, but check out those pinchers on the front of  its face.

The lacewing larva is not the only one there for the aphids. There were ladybeetles, too.

More Bugs:

Assassin bug nymph

Katydid nymph

Bee and katydid nymph

The newest monarch caterpillar has disappeared, and I have still not found any bigger than first instar, but here are some other milkweed specific caterpillars in a couple of different sizes (instars):

Milkweed tussock moth caterpillars. 

Some amorous spiders for Arachnid Appreciation:

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Bowl and doily spiders. The female is on the left, the male is on the right. I watched the approach, and the 'courtship' phase was brief.

Male on the left, female on the right...

I think that yellow blob is the sperm packet that he is passing over to her. It gets inserted somewhere, but I don't know where.

They separated (I think I scared them), but later when I went by again they were back together (or another male had come by):

Another sperm packet being passed along.