The Bugs in the Backyard: Comebacks

Well.

This was a serendipitous day of bug photography. It was just like it used to be doing my bug walks... except that instead of walking around one acre of backyard, I walked about 35 acres. But this little encounter happened about two steps from my back porch. First time a butterfly has ever photobombed a picture of a butterfly for me before. I was trying to take a picture of the skipper when the pearl crescent (wait, I think it might be something else) stopped by. They shared the flower for a couple of second, and then both flew away...

... but the skipper didn't go very far.

There are a lot of bugs that I think I am seeing more of this year than the last couple of years. One reason I stopped doing my bug walks for a while is because there just seemed to be a lot fewer bugs around, and I found that depressing, but lately their numbers seem to be improving. It's not because I was not blogging or doing bug walks that I haven't seen a lot of these things–I was always looking for bugs, even if I wasn't taking picture of them. But now, I am seeing so much that I have been missing the last few years. Like, I have seen a lot more long legged flies lately:

(These are both pictures of the same fly, though).

Backyard Bug of the Day:

Last summer I didn't see any grasshoppers at all, and the previous summer I only saw a couple. So far this year I think I have seen three grasshopper nymphs–and the nymphs are tiny, so they are hard to see.

Last summer I hardly saw any dragonflies. This year I see them every day, and have seen a variety of species.

And damselflies.

I've seen lots of leaf hoppers...

... and tree hoppers.

The last couple of years I have hardly seen any caterpillars, and this year it did seem like it would be the same, but lately there are a lot of them around:

This is some kind of hairstreak caterpillar. They have an interesting relationship with ants, who are their protectors.

There's something odd about this caterpillar...

Pay attention to that dark shape in the shadows at the bottom of the picture, and we'll come back to this...

Forest tent caterpillar. I haven't seen one of these in years, and I used to see at least a few every summer.

I used to see white marked tussock moth caterpillars all the time, but for the last couple of years they have disappeared. Today I saw two!:

They were tiny. I don't think I have seen such early instars of these before.

Katydid nymphs!

I can't remember what kind of insect does this, but it rolls up the leaf and pupates in there.

I have never been able to find out what kind of beetle larva this is, and I have tried. (Okay, I just tried again. It's the larva of a Trirhabda beetle, which is a genus of leaf skeletonizing leaf beetle. I don't know what specific species it is).

I could not tell what this was when I saw it, because I could not get closer than this, but it kept hovering near me.

I guess the hovering should have clued me in that it was a hoverfly. It's a much bigger one than I have seen before.

I think this is an assassin bug egg.

Cranefly. Female. Looks like she's ready to lay some eggs.

The bathtub frog is back! I think it went back to the small pond when the rain filled up the pond again, and now that it is almost dried up the frog has come back to the bathtub.

Wood frogs blend in with the leaf litter extraordinarily well.

Okay, back to bugs...

Remember when I posted pictures of an eyed click beetle the other day, and I said it was the first time I had seen one that had not landed on someone's shirt?

When I was walking in the woods today this one landed on my shirt.

Then it dropped onto my shoe.

Fly

I think this is an apple fly, or a fruit fly of some kind...

I love that their wings look like a starry sky. I hate that they don't like to be photographed.

Longhorn flower beetle on maple leaf viburnum.

Fern with spores

And fern with caterpillars?

The internet is sometimes not very helpful. There's either a spider in there, or a caterpillar. I think probably caterpillar.

There are apparently several species of caterpillars that make balls of leaves at the end of fern fronds and feed on the plant from inside the ball.

There was some weirdness on the stream bed today:

No, not the dead caterpillar. The weird bumps. I don't know if that's algae growing up under the silt, eggs of some kind, insects...? It has not been like this before.

Then as I was taking pictures of this spot, something swam into view, a tiny thing, that was underwater, but looked like it was flying, and when that settled on the bottom something else moved...

The upper arrow is the swimming thing. The lower arrow is the thing that moved, obviously something hiding under a clod of dirt.

The swimming thing moved around a bit, and I was able to get a slightly better shot of it...

Tiny water beetle! It swims by using its legs like oars.

I did not get a better look at this thing.

Another shot of the two of them.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see if these develop into something...

Spiders often build webs over the stream, because there's a lot of flying insects over the stream. This web has a mayfly and another kind of fly in it.

Crane fly

There are maple leaf viburnum all over the woods, and there are a lot of flower longhorn beetles feeding on them.

The rove beetles are still hanging out in the stump with the big mushroom in it, but the mushroom is definitely past peak freshness. When it is gone, I imagine they will fly away to find another fungus.

Another crane fly

I don't know what kind of footprints these are. They are too small to be a raccoon, and too big to be a squirrel. Opossum? No idea.

Arachnid Appreciation:

Remember that caterpillar above, with the dark shape in the shadows? This is the dark shape. I think that caterpillar was dead, and had been killed by this spider. Note the caterpillar's face peeking over the edge of the leaf.