More Backyard Wildlife

There is a lot of wildlife to enjoy in our back yard. And as someone who really enjoys macro photography, the opportunities are almost endless. The names of some of the invertebrates are descriptive and interesting as well.

While checking out a Tall Ironweed plant recently I came across this critter....it is an Assassin Bug. It isn't big, but I imagine it could be quite intimidating to a small insect.

The patch of dill often attracts a variety of insects. I came across this colourful Twice-stabbed Stinkbug.....

.....and a little later, these tiny critters. These are the larval form of the Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetle.

 Adult Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetle

The Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetle is not native to North America, as one would guess from the name. They were brought to this continent to help control aphids, quite successfully I might add. Unfortunately that was to the detriment of some of our native Lady Beetles, many of which have declined severely.

Milkweeds are favourite haunts of insects. One of the most colourful ones is this Red-banded Leafhopper. They don't look this bright from a distance. In fact they are only about 5-8mm long, so one has to get up really close to even see them, and a macro lens is a necessity to see the detail and colour.

 It looks like another generation of this colourful creature is not too far off.

While I was looking for these leafhoppers, I turned over a milkweed leaf and saw this rather peculiar sight. I watched for a few minutes and decided it was an immature insect emerging from an early stage of development.

 These photos were just taken a minute or two apart, and show how this insect transforms from a small, early development nymph stage to an older one. (In case you wanted to know, this is incomplete metamorphosis, going from egg to nymph to adult. The nymph stage can go through several growth stages. Complete metamorphosis goes from egg to larva to pupa to adult)

 The end result is that it is a more mature looking Large Milkweed Bug, which are often seen in clusters on milkweeds.

 The full adult Large Milkweed Bug is shown next.

Milkweed leaves make great landing spots for flies. This first one is a Long-legged Fly. It is tiny as evidenced by the leaf venation for scale, but if you look closely, you can see that it is feeding on an even smaller fly!

 I'm not sure what kind of fly this next one is, but it is colourful (as are many flies).

On the developing goldenrod was this Flower Fly.

Marie was keeping an eye on the strawberries, and came across this next critter. It is a moth, known as The Herald.

On a tomato plant was this Tobacco Hornworm. There is a Tomato Hornworm that looks similar, but this one is a Tobacco Hornworm. It is the larval stage of the Carolina Sphinx Moth.

 Even though these hornworms can do a lot of damage to tomatoes, they in turn can become food for something else: parasitic wasps. This next photo shows a hornworm that has had a lot of eggs laid in it by a parasitic wasp. The eggs hatch and the larvae feed internally before pupating. The pupae, or cocoon, are on the outside of the caterpillar and are shown here as grains of rice. The caterpillar eventually succumbs.

Nature can be fascinating even in its life and death struggles to survive. The insect world has no shortage of such events! A future post will highlight some of the other fascinating invertebrate creatures I've recently come across in the yard.