I did a short bug walk today in my backyard and the field, and that was it for my time spent outside; the forecast was dire, and I didn't want to go for a walk in the woods and get caught in a thunderstorm. In the end, we only had a little bit of thunder rumble through about 9:30 in the evening, so I could have gone out this afternoon. Well, it was an annoying kind of day. The bugs were plentiful, but definitely in a flighty mood–most of the things I tried to photograph flew away.
Backyard Bugs of the Day:
Four-lined plant bugs
My other problem today was wind...
Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a tiny insect on a leaf when it's windy? You get a lot of shots like this.
Other Bugs:
Katydid nymph. That's my finger in the upper left. I was trying to steady the milkweed leaf in the wind, and I ended up scaring the katydid into jumping away. It was an impressive jump, but that was the end of pictures of this nymph.
Weevils:
Earwigs. I have read that earwigs, unusually among insects, care for their young. None of these look young, but I wonder if this is a family.
Lots of tumbling flower beetles around again today.
Mostly I saw them on fleabane, which was just generally popular today:
I tried to get a picture showing how many insects were on this plant, and you can see how that turned out. Each of these arrows points to a different species of bug: tumbling flower beetle, plant bug, sweat bee... and I can't remember what was on the flower toward the back of the clump. Bonus points if you spot the other bee.
Candy striped leaf hopper. Or this might be the other species that looks like the candy striped leaf hopper but has more subdued colors. It's kind of hard to tell.
Moth. Not to be gross, but one thing you notice when you spend a lot of time outside looking at the small details of nature is the many different ways bird poop can look, and the many different things that mimic those looks. This probably doesn't look like bird poop to you, because your brain is prepared to just see this as a moth, because why would I post a picture of bird poop? But trust me, in the "wild" this looks like bird poop.
I don't know what is going on here...
That's a weevil, and obviously some ants...
... and the ant is biting the weevil's leg. The weevil wasn't reacting at all.
I have a set of wicker shelves on my back porch, waiting for opportunity and good weather to coincide so I can clean them with the hose. I should have foreseen what would happen... Carolina wrens have built a nest on one of the shelves, right on top of the baseball and other items that are on the shelf. Carolina wrens once built a nest in a bucket on my back porch, which we didn't notice until after the baby birds had hatched. I found this nest because I was reminded by finding one of my pictures of the bucket nest, and it occurred to me that these wicker shelves were probably an attractive nesting spot, and I should check... and I was right. You can just barely see there's an egg in there. No bird was on the nest when I checked, but later I peeked at it an a bird flew out, so we are going to have to be careful not to disturb them too much. However, the birds built that nest with us coming and going from that door a dozen times a day, they can't be bothered by us too much. Still, I moved the shelves a bit farther from the door, just in case. At least this time the nest is behind the door–the bucket nest was on the other side. I can't believe that that one went unnoticed for so long. I wonder how long it would have taken for me to notice this one if I hadn't thought to look for it. Anyway, I know it was built since June 1st, because that's when I put all of those items on the shelf. I do love that wildlife are so happy to live close to us. Which is not to say that I want a family of skunks to move in under my porch, just that I like having wildlife around.
Arachnid Appreciation:
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I found this crab spider eating an ant at the beginning of my bug walk, and it was still there, still eating at the end of my walk. I had read somewhere once that spiders don't eat ants because ants have formic acid as a nasty defense, which makes them unpleasant to eat even if they don't spray their attacker, but it's clearly not completely true, if it's true at all.
This absolutely gorgeous jumping spider is a new species for me.
Trash line spider
Harvestman on hydrangea leaf. It may be a bit early, but if it sticks around until the flowers are in full bloom there are sure to be plenty of things to eat coming by.
Two spider egg sacs on this milkweed plant now...
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