Night Bugs

 We went away for a few days, and I went walking in other woods away from home. The waterfalls there were much more impressive, but I didn't see any bugs other than the mosquitoes that tried to bite me. I'm not saying there weren't any, I just didn't notice them as I was trying not to fall off of cliffs. 

I'm home now, and the heat wave is over, but I am still in a pattern of night hikes and early morning walks. With rain threatening the last couple of days I didn't bring my camera out, but near the end of my hike tonight I saw a cool bug, so I figured I might as well go inside and get my camera. Then it just a few minutes, in the dark, I found a bunch of other cool bugs.

Backyard Bug of the Day:

I am almost positive that this is a Promethea moth caterpillar, except that the knobs on its back above its head are supposed to be bright red. It was even on a host plant of Promethea moths. So... I think it's a Promethea. If so, it has a lot of growing to do–it is about an inch long now, but I think it will end up close to three inches. Promethea moths are one of the bigger species, for this part of the world, anyway.

Other Bugs:

I actually spotted this a bit earlier on my walk (although also somewhat near the end, close to the edge of the woods)–a green lacewing laying eggs. On our recent night hikes, the last couple of weeks or so, we have seen a lot of green lacewings flying around, and apparently it is their mating season. I have seen egg masses around, too.

I always thought that green lacewing eggs were all grouped together at the end of a single thread, but watching her tonight, and looking at the pictures, it is clear that each egg is on a separate strand; she attaches a strand to the leaf and then lays the egg at the end of it.

She would curl her body up to place each strand on the leaf.

I found lots of tree crickets, of various levels of nymph-hood:

 

And many Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillars, in different instars:

And another monarch caterpillar! I have been unable to find the two I spotted a week ago, but I found a new one tonight, early instar. You can see it has not had time to make much of a hole on this leaf, but I still found it by examining the leaf damage.

I found another species of caterpillar eating a Black eyed Susan flower:

Leaf hoppers

Ailanthus webworm moth, on Ailanthus tree sapling:

 

Arachnid Appreciation:

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Nursery web spider

An apparently gravid female spined micrathena

I think this is a Cross Orb Weaver:

I can't tell what it is eating. Either a beetle or a cockroach.