Breakfast With Bugs

 Serendipitous is my favorite word. I love what it means, and I love the way it sounds. I love serendipitous moments. But as wonderful as serendipity is, by the very nature of it you can't ever rely on it. That's when it helps to have knowledge. For instance, if you want to see a particular kind of bug, one that makes only fleeting visits, for example, to a particular patch of flowers only on a couple of days out of the year, it helps to KNOW that it makes fleeing visits to that particular patch of flowers, so that instead of just wandering around you backyard all summer hoping to see the bug, you can have your breakfast in the arbor where the flowers are, and keep an eye out for the bug to come by. At least, that's what I did, in hopes of seeing today's Backyard Bug of the Day. I took my camera, my newspaper, and my oatmeal outside the last couple of days, and in between reading the comics I would check out the invasive flowers that I should be removing, and finally, today, the bug I was looking for zoomed in for a close-up.

Backyard Bug of the Day #1:

Nessun sphinx moth, a hummingbird moth. If you go back through my blog, around this time in various years you will see almost identical pictures. Not always of this species of hummingbird moth, though. But last year this is what was here around this time. They are so fun to watch, and this one not only let me get fairly close, but moved closer to me to feed on the plants in front of me. It's obviously hard to compare year to year, but I think this one was pretty small compared to other ones I have seen.

I know it's blurry, but check out the curled proboscis. It extends it to feed on the nectar inside the flower, but it is curled up under its chin (not that moths have chines) when not feeding.

Backyard Co-Bug of the Day #2:

Damselfly. I rarely get pictures of damselflies, because it's hard to get close to them, but this one landed right near the back porch steps as I was on my way into the house, and then sat for a few photos. Then an ant scared it away.

Other Bugs:

Some kind of Hemiptera nymph

Last week I posted a picture of a pair of ladybeetles doing their part to propagate the species. Yesterday on my walk I noticed that the bush where I saw them had a bunch of ladybeetle larvae on it. So today I brought my camera on my walk to photograph them. I figured they would still be around, as that is the way of ladybeetle larvae to an extent (see? Knowledge!), and, of course, I had trouble finding them. But here's one...

... based on its size this is likely not the offspring of the pair I saw last week, but...

... This one might be. Already chowing down on aphids.
 

I spotted this stinkbug in the stream, obviously struggling.

I rescued it with my walking stick.

Today I had to cancel my allergy shot appointment because I have poison ivy, and you can't get allergy shots while you have poison ivy. So, feeling more than usually hostile toward it, but I saw this:

... and was instantly intrigued. For years I have read descriptions of poison ivy that said the plant has white flowers and berries, but never had I ever seen either on the plant. Until today, little white flowers. This is the closest I could get, not so much because it's poison ivy and I don't want to touch it, but because it was about ten feet up a tree.

From June 1:

I think this is a Small Wood Satyr butterfly (and there are a couple of flies off to the left). I took this picture with my zoom lens from a second floor window. From there when I spotted the butterfly I wasn't completely sure it wasn't just a dried leaf fluttering in the breeze.

The reason I took the picture of the butterfly with my zoom lens from a second floor window is because at the time I was trying to take a picture of a vole. You can see how that worked out.

June 2:

Sawfly larva

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Unfortunately for me, after I took this far-away-so-I-can-get-at-least-one-in-case-I-scare-it shot, the wind suddenly picked up, so my closer shots are out of focus. It's too bad, because this jumping spider is a really pretty purple that doesn't really show well in this shot.

We have a picnic table in the woods, and we sometimes stop there for a while on our walks. The last couple of days I have not been able to sit in my usual spot because this spider has a web there.

Two empty shells:

Robin's egg, and the exuvia (exuvium? shed exoskeleton) of a spider