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Oh, my gosh, it's almost the end of September! Summer is almost just a memory! And yet the story goes on -- you can still see the slow evolution from April to now. The Goldenrod is almost long gone (a few strands still are yellow, but not many). But the Asters are in their heyday.
The Euonymus or "Burning Bush" is trying as hard as it can to supplant the Asters. It will have to keep getting redder and redder - but it WILL!
The American Asters are these fine-toothed new neighbors. In fact, we got very very lucky with these delicate little guys this week. Two members of iNat worked on these guys, even requesting pictures of the rear view of the blossoms. Together @Elizabethe1067 and @wdvanhem came to the conclusion that these are Panicled Asters, Symphyotrichum lanceolatum.
The Phlox are fading, but weren't they pretty when they were all over the place?
The Critters just kept coming. This probable Aphid was here on August 27. The Bees, attracted to the Asters, are still happy, especially with the Asters. The middle one in the next line is a Western Honey Bee on the last of the Goldenrod, and the last one was an Eastern Bumblebee. For those of you who are glad to see the Bees lessen, they are doing just that as the Asters begin to fade.
What about the Beetles? Here are a red-brown mystery Beetle and a yellow Asian Lady Beetle. Next is a Weevil, which a colleague on iNat identified as a Wavy Flower Weevil, and then another Weevil, probably a Red Bud Weevil.
About the Bugs: You may wonder why you see so many examples with the Zelus luridus Assassin Bug. Well, it is a very common critter and the camera loves it! That's why. Here is an early nymph, then a slightly larger one who has mastered the fine art of spearing its prey with its proboscis. Finally an adult!
First here MAY be the Drymus unus I was telling you about, who comes back just as the Goldenrod is fading, to mate, or it may be another Bug. I am used to seeing them at this time of year in pairs mating. So if Mr. Right shows up this coming week, you know I will be telling you about it. Second is something you might or might not remember from a previous blog, but it is a Thread-legged Bug, Emesaya brevipennis . It may be hard to imagine but if you can focus on the pair of "fingers" held very close together at the upper right of this picture, those are used to grasp the prey. Look how different bugs can appear.
Here are a couple more Bugs. This first one is a male Alder Spittlebug. (The female would be brown where this one is black.) Second is the Eastern Boxelder Bug. Third is one of those red and blue Leafhoppers. Then we see a few more Leafhoppers.
Here's another Beetle that just came in this morning. I know I've seen it before, and have submitted it to iNat for an expert opinion. Aha. @borisb and @rob-westerduijn said it was a Redbud Seed Weevil. And this tiny fellow MIGHT be something recognizable to someone.
Here are a few Spiders.
A few more. Number 2 shows number 1 diving under that leaf to escape the prying eye of the camera! @Paolosol of iNat says number 1 is in Genus Mecaphesa, a member of Crab Spiders (Family Thomisidae). I just like its face, especially its red eyes.
Last week our Barklice (Psocids) included a few that weren't easy to identify. One was this (first) yellowish one. In discussing its ID with Diane Young, she suggested it might be Valenzuela or Xanthocaecilius. This week I found picture 2, which looks like Xanthocaecilius sommermanae - the dead giveaway is the bright yellow eyes. But it doesn't look like the left-most one, which was last week's puzzle offering.
It is good still to be able to see a few Barklice. It has been so chilly, and the wall where I see more creatures has been so dark that the ones I do find on there are often fuzzy and hence not easy to identify. Ones that are still easy to identify are this Polypsocus corruptus, Graphopsocus cruciatus. and one of genus Trichadenotecnum.
Froggy and Froggette are often found not too far from each other on the side of the Pond. I believe that I can now tell the male from the female pretty accurately. Remember when we were trying to compare the size of the tympanum and the throat colors? I was not finding that an easy process. But now having taken a LOT of pictures of them, I think I have a cool and correct method for distinguishing them. In this picture, the one on the right seems to have a nice greenish face - the green does seem to continue on to the throat. I believe this is Froggy, the male. On the leftmost frog, the line that divides the upper face from the throat almost looks as if it has a line of teeth. This toothy line seems to occur with regularity in ALL the females I've seen.
Let's try that again. The one on the left does seem to have a smooth transition of green from upper lip to throat, whereas in picture two the Froggette seems to have the dentures. So I'm going to go out on a limb and say "Forget the tympanum"! I may be wrong in making this jump but that's what us Froggists do!
Well, I believe we have now seen the LAST water lily bloom of the season. A few days ago, this white one finally opened up. There don't seem to be any other buds coming along. Leaves are now falling from the trees into the Pond, and so I have to go out a couple of times a day to scoop them off the surface so they don't go to the bottom of the Pond for the winter.
So folks, the Pond and the rest of the Back Yard seem to be closing down to get ready for a long rest. I hope you will be able to keep your affection for the pace of the seasons, and do what you can to keep the climate under control. Love, Martha
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