A Few Days and Nights of Bugs

 So, what's been going on for the last week? Well, a heat wave for most of it. Some rain. I've been doing a lot of night hikes to avoid the heat, and had a couple of my walks curtailed by thunder. I've seen a second spotted lanternfly nymph, and reported it. I haven't seen an ebony jewelwings since the heat wave started. I spotted a fawn in my backyard yesterday, but I only caught a glimpse as it bounded away. The night sparkles with fireflies (there's one flashing on my window screen as I write this), to a soundtrack of crickets. I still haven't seen a monarch butterfly this year, but today I found a new species of insect that I have never seen before to be Backyard Bug of the Day:

It's a bee, quite a small one. I have never seen one with a pattern like that. The wings seem oddly small.

 And here's the Backyard Bug of the Day from yesterday (Sunday, June 23):

Firefly resting on the underside of a leaf in the afternoon. Nice view of its light organ. I went out after dark to see if it was still around, but it had flown off to join the fun with all of the other fireflies.

I found another one under a leaf today:

This one is smaller. I don't know if it's a different species, a different sex, or just that there is size variety within the species that is not part of sexual dimorphism.

And Backyard Bug of the Day from... what day was this? Saturday, June 22? No, I didn't take my camera out that day, rain was threatening... Friday, June 21:

Katydid nymph. I braved the horrible heat that afternoon because there were some specific pictures I wanted to take in the woods that day, but I had my zoom lens on the camera, so I didn't get many pictures of bugs. I saw this one right at the end of my walk.

It was on the same plant with this:

Lady beetle pupa

I had a couple of insect visitors on the back porch that night:

This moth is called Beautiful Wood Nymph, and it is beautiful, but I feel compelled to mention that the first time I ever saw one I found out what it was called by googling "moth that looks like bird poop."

 

Like many things in life, it's all about perspective.

I think this is a grape leaf roller moth. 

Backyard Bug of the Day from Thursday, June 20:

Plume moths on dogbane

That was another day that I went out with my zoom lens instead of my macro, and I didn't see many bugs that day, either. I was out early in the morning that day, which was Day 3 of the heat wave. It was a hot, muggy morning. I didn't like it, and maybe the bugs didn't either.

But I found a couple:

Now, back to today, and the Other Bugs:

Tiny assassin bug nymph

Clover blossom covered in plant bugs

Lady beetle

Lady beetle larva with prey

Weevil and caterpillar on common mullein.

I found this caterpillar today...

 ... and this one last night:

My favorite thing about these caterpillars (and others of similar morphology) is that no one knows what those spikes on their back ends are for. They are not stingers, they have no venom–but just maybe they provide defense just by looking like stingers?

One evening last week (June 20) I spotted this:

Hundreds of tiny caterpillars skeletonizing leaves around which they had built a silk web; the leaves were completely encased, and the caterpillars were inside feeding, but also crawling around on the outside. They had covered several leaves on the same branch. It was a bit over my head, and it was early in the morning and even though this is on the edge of the woods, that time of day it was in deep shade, so it was hard for me to see or photograph. I wasn't sure what kind of caterpillars they were; sometimes early instars look different than later ones, but they looked familiar...

By the time I finished my walk the sun had moved enough so they were a little bit in the sun, and I could see them better

 I've been checking them out for the last week...

Here they are today:

They've grown quite a bit in just a few days. I have figured out that they are fall webworm caterpillars.

 A couple of nights ago some of them were clustered together on a web-covered leaf twitching in unison–they looked like they were at a rave.

Plume moth. It took me a second to realize what it was; I am not sure I have seen one from this angle before.

A more recognizable view.

 Six-spotted tiger beetle

 Hopper nymph:

Tiny assassin bug nymph feeding on a beetle larva. Remember this scene when we get to Arachnid Appreciation...

 I think this is a gravid female beetle:

Gravid meaning full of eggs for her to lay; that is not the name of the species.

The only other explanation I can think of for her shape is some sort of parasitic infection, but I prefer to think she's full of eggs. I have seen beetles of this species that look like this before. 

Japanese beetle:

 

I think this is a species of tachinid fly:

 

Grasshopper nymph:

The color and slight wrinkliness of this makes me think this has recently moulted.

 

I am quite sure this katydid has very recently moulted:

... because that appears to be its exuvia (the skin it shed) on the leaf beside it.

I need a good butterfly field guide, because if I had one I would be able to tell if this is a little wood satyr butterfly or one of the other species that looks like a little wood satyr butterfly.

I found this click beetle struggling in the stream, and fished it out with a stick. It did not thank me for rescuing it.

This beetle belongs in the water:

It appears to be feeding on whatever that thing is on the stream bed.

This water strider was perfectly content on top of the water.

I am not sure if this is a March fly or a robber fly.

Long-legged fly. I don't think I have ever seen one this blue.

Praying mantis nymph

I think this beetle on my zucchini plant is a garden pest...

I think this is a silver spot skipper.

I keep saying "I think" on a lot of these...

Ants tending to their aphid herd. These are very young nymphs.

Sweat bee in daylily

I found an enormous fungus in the woods...

But I guess to appreciate how big it is, you need some context:

My foot for scale. I was disappointed that it didn't have any interesting bugs on it. Lots of slugs, and a few gnats that were too tiny to photograph, but no cool beetles or anything like that.

This is almost like the ghost of a tree:

 The combination of rain and warm weather has brought out lots of fungus:

I used an app on my phone to identify a couple of them, although I never completely trust such identifications. This one is Crown-tipped Coral fungus.

And this is Eastern Cauliflower Mushroom:

No, I did not taste it to see if it tastes like cauliflower.

I didn't look this one up:

Even with the rain over the weekend the ponds are still dry, so frogs have been hanging out at the bathtub in the woods:

Sometimes they dive in when I arrive, but often they will climb back out again while I am still standing there.

Arachnid Appreciation:

 

 Remember that assassin bug nymph?

I found this little drama taking place on my hat when I took it off upon returning to the house. Not the same assassin bug nymph, or even the same species, but it just goes to show that even the predator can become prey. This spider did NOT want to get off of my hat. It took a lot of persuasion, and through it all it never dropped its dinner.