I think of my backyard garden as its own little ecosystem, and I'm constantly amazed at the diversity of creatures that choose to make their homes there (usually because they want to eat the flowers or leaves, or because they want to eat the things that eat the flowers or leaves). Here's a small sampling of the creatures (mostly insects) I've noticed in the garden over the past two weeks. It's a jungle out there!
Flowers are a big deal in the garden, and there are always plenty of bees around. This bumblebee has its head buried in a bean flower and the pollen baskets on its legs are brimming full of collected pollen (I just learned about this part of bee anatomy, and I think it's super cool):
In addition to the flowering plants I actually put in the garden on purpose, a huge Pokeweed plant has sprung up in one shady corner, and I let it grow because I think it's quite attractive. Lots of flying insects apparently like it, too. This very small wasp is enjoying the Pokeweed's little white blossoms:
And this much larger wasp (probably a Four-toothed Mason Wasp, Monobia quadridens) is browsing over the Pokeweed blooms as well:
In the leaf-eating camp, several leafhopper-type bugs make their homes here (in small numbers, so I'm not worried about them damaging the plants). This fancy leafhopper (Graphocephala versuta, I think) is very pretty in subtle green/blue/yellow stripes, and as I watched it, it seemed to be exuding some sort of liquid and collecting the droplets with its legs. Weird!
I see these Citrus Flatid Planthoppers (Metcalfa pruinosa) pretty frequently, and I quite like their powdery gray outfits:
Baby leafhoppers look super strange. This leafhopper nymph was showing off its weird semi-translucent body on a bean leaf:
This stocky planthopper nymph (possibly genus Acanalonia) was eying me warily:
This next leaf-eater I am definitely not happy to see, as it takes huge chunks out of my bean leaves. Go away, Japanese Beetle, I don't want you here:
A few times now, I've noticed a strangely symmetrical bit of dried leaf, and then realize... oh, it's a moth! This is an Omnivorous Leafroller (Archips purpurana), I believe:
And speaking of leaf-like creatures, this Greater Angle-wing Katydid nymph (Microcentrum rhombifolium) does a fantastic job of blending in with these soybean leaves:
This creature isn't quite full-grown yet, but it's still pretty big -- about the size of my thumb. I've seen it several days in a row in the same spot, and I have to admire it every time. I love its mottled green skin, and those tiny baby wings are sooo cute:
When I saw this katydid most recently (I'm 99% sure it was the same individual, with that same missing leg and the same pattern of dots on its back), its little wings were bigger! Grow, baby katydid, grow:
Other cool creatures include this little cricket with antennae so big I couldn't fit them in the frame (they're about two or three times longer than this picture shows):
And this tiny adorable jumping spider who couldn't decide whether to focus more on the giant camera lens looming over its head...
Or the huge pink blob (i.e., my finger) that had invaded its home leaf:
The little spider was probably keeping an eye out for a meal, and there are tons of other predators all over the garden. Long-legged flies are particularly prevalent, little sparkling jewels in green, blue, and orange that cruise around looking for even tinier bugs to eat:
Mmm, this one got something!
But the long-legged flies can become meals, too.... This one wasn't very lucky, but I bet the spider's happy with its catch!
Robber flies are common predators around here, too. This one was hanging from the Pokeweed stem and munching on a nice fat beetle:
Finally, speaking of predators, I was very happy to find an American Toad living in the garden. I took this picture with my phone (I clearly need to always have my camera with me) in early July, but I saw the toad again last week, so I'm hoping it's sticking around:
This individual has just the most wonderful deep brown/maroon color, the likes of which I don't remember ever seeing on a toad before. I think it's a gorgeous creature, and I love that it's been out there on bug/slug patrol. Eat away, lovely toad!
Whew, so many things to see, and I don't even have to leave my yard! Summer is such a lively time, and I'm looking forward to meeting more cool creatures in my garden as the season continues.
Well, the garden's up and thriving, which means that there will (hopefully) be yummy food in our future. It also means that there's a whole jungle of amazing tiny creatures right outside our door! I've been taking my macro lens out into the garden for the past few days to put it through its paces (and try to learn how to really use it), and I've seen some very cool bugs in the process. Here's a sampling!
Long-legged Flies (family Dolichopodidae) are very common in our garden -- small hunters zooming around and sporting iridescent costumes in green or orange. The hunting must be good here, because so many of these creatures were munching on smaller bugs when I saw them, including this one:
This next Long-legged Fly seems to me to be striking a heroic pose -- off on an adventure, are we? (I admit that I'm probably crazy for thinking this.)
Another winged hunter, this larger Robber Fly (family Asilidae) paused on a sunny rock between flights:
And a small pretty beetle (species unknown) watched me from its mint-leaf platform:
Do you want to see an aphid up close?
We have Flea Beetles on our potato plants, but thankfully not enough to do any serious damage -- they just leave a few tiny pin holes in the leaves and pose for dramatic pictures:
This little Potter Wasp (possibly Parancistrocerus perennis) was inspecting the area:
And a leafhopper (family Cicadellidae) tried to hide behind a stem:
Speaking of leafhoppers, this Red-banded Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea) was absolutely the fanciest thing around:
I love that we have these gorgeous little creatures here -- they look like they should be somewhere tropical, not in my back yard:
This individual was very patient with me, and eventually I left it in peace in its nice hiding spot beneath the potato buds (where it seemed to practically glow in the shade):
I had to go back to a regular lens to take a picture of this last creature -- a lovely big Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), a type of damselfly, and identifiable as a female because of those white spots on her wings:
I've been seeing one of these creatures in the garden for several days in a row now -- could it be the same individual? Perhaps she's also finding the garden to be a good place to hunt. Such a pretty girl:
I have one more garden bug (well, spider) to share, but she's just too cool and so will need her own post. Stay tuned!
I can't help it -- I go out into the garden, I see cool bugs, and I just have to take pictures. Some of the creatures I saw today were quite beautiful. Others, not so much. But all were interesting!
Here's my favorite, a tiny little leafhopper (probably Graphocephala coccinea) -- of all the leafhoppers I've seen, I think these guys are the prettiest:
And speaking of pretty tiny things, now that I know about long-legged flies, I keep seeing them everywhere. This one has got a really nice metallic green-and-yellow color-scheme going on, and I love those fancy wings:
Even the "normal" flies are cool-looking when you get up close to them. I'm not sure exactly what type of fly this is (some sort of blow fly?), but it's got some nice metallic coloring that would be really easy to miss if I weren't sticking my camera in its face:
And this fly (a flesh fly, family Sarcophagidae... is that a scary name or what?) has those attractive gray and black stripes:
I thought at first that this was some sort of caterpillar:
But someone at BugGuide.net pointed out that it's actually a sawfly larvae -- not a butterfly or moth at all! I had no idea other insect larvae could resemble caterpillars so closely. Apparently one of the easiest ways to tell the difference is that most lepidopteran (butterfly/moth) larvae only have up to four pairs of "prolegs" (the suction-cup-like things) on the second half of its body, plus the pair of prolegs at the end, whereas sawfly larvae have more than that. I count at least seven pairs in this picture, so... not a caterpillar! Crazy!
Finally, here's my "artsy" photo of the day, as Paul called it. I think I accidentally gave this small beetle (a ground beetle?) a shower while I was putting the garden hose away:
At one point this morning, I also saw what looked like some sort of awesome hawk moth, but of course, as soon as I was ready to take a picture of it, it was gone. Ah well, I'll keep my eyes open and maybe it'll come back.
Update 7/18/11: No, don't come back! I happened to stumble across a picture of the moth I saw, and as it turns out, it was a Squash Vine Borer. I had no idea these devastating larvae were actually moths, let alone such cool-looking ones. I feel so betrayed. :( Also, it's not a type of hawk moth, but a clearwing moth, while I'm correcting myself. Now that I know these guys are around, I have to watch out for eggs on my squash stems, and signs of leaves wilting....
All in all, I'm having a lot of fun learning about what sorts of creatures live in my yard, even if I can't actually identify most of them. Also, my growing tendency to take pictures of things up close seems to suggest that I should get a macro lens at some point. :P
We have a toad living in our garden. :D It's a nicely plump, medium-sized fellow, who I first saw when I was watering the garden the other day (free shower!), and who was hunkered down in a lovely little hollow next to the garden fence this morning. Can you find the camouflaged and partially-buried toad in this picture?
What a lovely creature. The name "Bobby" was Paul's suggestion, the idea being that this is one of those names that could work for either a boy or a girl. I think it fits pretty well.
I may not know the gender of this creature, but for once I am pretty confident about the species. We have two species of toads in Connecticut, and I've had some trouble identifying individual toads in the past, but this guy seems to be a pretty clear example of an American Toad. These black outlines around individual "warts" on its back are characteristic of the species, and I think the patterns are rather beautiful:
I strongly encouraged Bobby to relocate to a more central location in the garden -- the hiding place in the first couple of pictures was dangerously close to the gate and therefore my feet -- and he or she has been hanging out among the carrots all afternoon. I like having a little amphibian friend around, and I hope the garden proves to be a suitable long-term home. :)
While I was out with the camera, I couldn't resist taking pictures of some more insects in the garden. There's a whole world of tiny creatures out there!
Here's a tiny leafhopper with a cool design -- it's a Saddled Leafhopper (Colladonus clitellarius):
This brightly-colored creature is some sort of sawfly, in the family Argidae, and I haven't been able to figure out any identification details other than that:
And this is a long-legged fly (family Dolichopodidae) -- can you believe the colors on this thing?
The internet tells me that long-legged flies prey on other insects, and they're actually good to have in a garden. So here's an example of a creature I never thought to pay attention to before, but when I stopped to look closely and learn about it, not only does it turn out to be gorgeous, but beneficial as well!
Here's a really bizarre insect that I just learned about. Can you tell what's going on here?
This is the larva of a Clavate Tortoise Beetle, and it's really super weird. The green oval-shaped thing with the spines is the actual creature. That big crinkly brown thing on its back? That's a mass of dried excrement. Poop. I couldn't make this stuff up. The larva actually holds this thing up over its back with a special "fork" on its hind end, and it can wave it around at will. Various internet sources suggest that this is some sort of defense mechanism, or a means of camouflage. Either way, blech. Also, ew.
So you can see what this weird thing grows into, here's a picture of an adult Clavate Tortoise Beetle that I took about a month ago:
These beetles really like my tomato plants (that is, to eat), so I'm keeping an eye on them. There are only a couple of these bugs around right now, but if more appear and start doing significant damage, it might be squishing time!
