The Bugs in the Backyard: 2022

Due to internet problems, I have not been able to blog lately. I am working on this post in limited time at the library, and will not be able to finish it today. This is a placeholder. [two days later...] Still working on this, a couple of days later at the library again, because I still can't do it at home. But it turns out that the library closes at 2:00 on Thursday, which stinks, so I am still not going to finish...

A couple of weeks ago I went on a stargazing cruise. It wasn't a lovely evening, although it was a lovely night. I got seasick, so I didn't do much stargazing, I just spent a lot of time staring at a point on the horizon. On the way back to the harbor I went to the back of the boat, and stood by the rail, just in case, and there I saw something wondrous: there were bio-luminescent creatures lighting up in the wake of the boat! It wasn't a huge carpet of light, like I have seen in pictures, but individual flashes of blue. In spite of my queasiness I was very excited. I have always wanted to see bio-luminescence, and a longtime wish came true, and only because I was seasick. And yet, a few days later I realized that there is actually a qualifier to that, because I HAVE seen bio-luminescence many times before, in my own backyard, and in many other places. That night on the ocean was the first time I saw aquatic bio-luminescence (I think it was the first time I have ever been on a boat on the ocean after dark), but every summer I see bio-luminescence flitting around in the form of fireflies, which are, after all, bio-luminescent. The season for aerial night lights is over for the year, but on my after-dark hikes in the woods lately I have seen another form. There is a clearing in the woods, and often when we walk there after dark we turn off our flashlights, because usually either moonlight or light pollution provides enough light to see the way. And what we can see lately is little glowing spots along the path–the lights of 'glowworms,' or firefly larvae. At the end of the path is a bench, and we have been sitting there in the dark lately just to watch the flashes of light. It is a charming and wonderful way to spend an autumn evening.

Now for the bugs of the last nearly-a-month...

Backyard Bug of the Day from September 11:

Net-winged beetle. You can't tell from this picture, but this is much smaller than any other net-winged beetle I have ever seen before. That seems to be a trend this summer, that I am seeing bugs that are much smaller than usual. If it happened with just one, I might think it was just an aberration in that bug, or a new species that is similar but smaller, but it has happened quite a few times, among different orders: beetles, Hemiptera, katydids, wasps... I can't remember them all off the top of my head right now, but it's too many varieties to just be a lot of species I have not seen before. I am not an entomologist, as you know, so I don't know enough about insects to know why, although I do wonder if the drought had anything to do wit it, even though we have had a few summers with drought lately.

The autumn joy sedum came into bloom, but it wasn't as popular with the bugs this year, which probably just means there weren't as many bugs, which is disturbing. Anyway, here's a honey bee enjoying some nectar.

Backyard Bug of the Day from September 12, 2022:

I was so excited to find this insect! From recent blogs you have probably seen a tortoise beetle. It spent a couple of weeks on the same leaf, and I was able to see it every day when I walked past. I don't see a lot of tortoise beetles, but they are not particularly rare for my backyard. But there is a specific tortoise beetle that is a rare sight for me, the golden tortoise beetle, which I only saw once a couple of years ago... until now! On that same tree where the other tortoise beetle (whose species name I do not know) hung around for weeks, I found a golden tortoise beetle!

Tortoise beetles are interesting, because they are sort of like a regular beetle that has been covered with a clear shield. But the shield on the golden tortoise beetle is gold... except that it can change to clear in a fraction of a second. So you either see the gold, or you see a pretty ordinary looking beetle underneath. In these pictures it's a bit in-between, which is too bad, because when it's all gold it look amazing! It was tricky getting pictures of this at all, because it was dark, and my ring flash's batteries were failing.

I ended up accidentally pulling the leaf off the tree, and set it on a nearby log, and the beetle scurried off under a bit of bark. Here's the beetle trying to hide, where you can see pretty well the clear cover over the beetle.

Anyway, unlike the tortoise beetle that spent weeks in the same spot, I figured I would see no more of this, particularly because it ten years of looking for bugs in my backyard, this is only the second one I have seen, but then...

A couple of days later (September 15) I found it (or another one, impossible to know) on the tree again! Not so astonishing, I suppose. It can fly, after all, it could be the same one, and it just flew back up to the leaf after I left. Anyway, here it is, in all its golden glory!

I have looked for it ever since, whenever I walk under that tree, but have not seen it again, alas.

Here is the Backyard Bug of the Day for September 15, 2022:

Moth. These moths make a very convincing show of being a piece of dried grass when they are actually in the grass, and not on a leaf on a tree.

Here are some pictures of insects that I took on the day I did my mushroom walk, that I did not post in the blog about mushrooms:

Assassin bug

There is a nest of bees on one of our paths, which my husband found when he was trimming the path and one of the bees stung him in the middle of his back. He did not finish the trimming, and we now walk past here quickly and carefully. Their season is almost over, though.

The goldenrod is still blooming and popular: