Orders of the Night

Hmmm... where to start...

Let's pick up with a subject from yesterday...

This is a tree cricket, and its exuvia. Obviously it has recently shed its skin. Something I didn't bother to mention in yesterday's post is that some insects eat their exuvia after they shed. Cicadas don't do that–they feed on fluids by sucking. But this tree cricket is eating the skin that it just shed. 

 

 This one is just hanging around. It's not an adult, which I think means it doesn't sing yet. There are plenty of others singing; I can't help wonder what the decibel level is in my backyard at night because of these things, along with the katydids.

Backyard Bugs of the Day:

 

This is a skipper butterfly. Possibly a male zabulon skipper.

I think this is the female (above), and they were courting.

There was quite a bit of chasing, or at least following.

They were hanging around this area for a while, sometimes on separate plants of flowers, but often together, with the male behind/below the female.

Can you spot the photobomber?

Oof. I just looked at the list of pictures I need to upload tonight... I took my camera out for a few minutes in the sweltering heat of midday, which is when I took the skipper pictures. Then later, after our night hike in the woods I did a bug walk in the dark in my regular backyard. I found a LOT of bugs after dark. I was surprised by the number and variety. But let's start with the reason I brought my camera out in the blazing heat...

When I opened the back door to go out and get the mail I saw this monarch butterfly flitting around the milkweed plants near the back porch...

Because she hung around for a while, I was able to get a few shots, although she didn't want me to get really close, and she was busy. But here's a selection of pictures of the monarch butterfly for you...

It wasn't exactly cooperative...

As you may have noticed, the milkweed flowers are not in bloom, so obviously she has another reason for hanging around and visiting so many of those particular plants. In fact, she's doing it in this picture...

... and here is the egg she laid. Milkweed is the sole foodplant for monarch caterpillars. She appeared to be laying eggs all over the plants, but this is the only one I found. As none of the other monarch eggs I have found in my yard this year have survived to be even late instar caterpillars, much less butterflies, I fervently hope this egg has better luck.

She did visit this flower to feed.

The bees like these flowers, too, and the skippers, as you saw above:

The rest of these pictures were taken after dark... Insects from many orders:

Plant bug on milkweed

Milkweed tussock moth caterpillar. THESE have not had trouble getting to later instars.

Wasp tucked in for the night

Brown lacewing. I actually saw two of these tonight, which was surprising since it's rare for me to see one at all.

I found a lot of leaf hoppers and plant hoppers. That's kind of unusual for a night bug walk: 

 

 

I saw several mating pairs of these leafhoppers:

 

 

I know there's no way to convey what size things really are when I am using the macro lens, but this hopper is only a couple of millimeters long.

 

Assassin bug nymph (I think. That is, I know it's a nymph, I know it's a Hemiptera of some kind. I think it's an assassin).

Click beetle

Dangling caterpillars

 

Tiny beetle

Moths:

I see these in the woods all the time, particularly when we do night hikes. Usually they are on the ground, and they fly when we walk past. this one was higher up, resting about eye level on a plant.

Leaf-footed bug

So we've seen Hemiptera, Lepidoptera (larval and adult), Hymenoptera, Whatever order lacewings are in, Coleoptera, Orthoptera... is that it? Yes, I think that's it. Quite a lot of insects out there in the dark!

Also in the backyard this evening, Backyard Amphibian of the Day:

Spring peeper

 And during my woods walk I found this one:

Or rather, my husband found this one. We see this kind of frog in the stream or ponds sometimes; this one was a couple of long hops away from it. Surprisingly, it did not hop into the stream when we came along, which is what they usually do.

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Spider protecting her eggs

I am not sure if this is the same kind of spider or not, but I think it is. This one is much bigger, though, and has a silk mat on the leaf, but no egg sac. So I think maybe she is gravid, and soon to lay her eggs. I should go out tomorrow or so and check that leaf to find out if I am right...