A sunny day and that means.....BUGS!!!!

I was heading out the door today and surprise, it was a sunny day and almost 60 degrees and sure enough, on the front screen porch......bugs. The temperatures have been dropping into the 20s at night but today, since it was kind of "warm," on my front porch were one praying mantis, several ladybugs and a lacewing....all on the porch screen warming their tummies. There was also one stinkbug on the molding ......but he never moved. :-/ This guy however, was pretty animated and was enjoying the sun. He had quite the expression (but what's up with the lumpy complexion?).

Every praying mantis I met over this past summer has had a different personality, and mission. They helped me with the grasshopper problem, were amused by bees forcing themselves to the very bottom of the turtleheads, beheaded an ant, grabbed something from a spider web for a quick snack, attacked me (!), but generally I'm impressed with all of them for their grace and how they took the time to consider the things around them. They're pretty patient. They're not jumping and  flying around like other bugs. If you see one in a spot in the morning, chances are he or she will be near the same spot at night. 

A profile, late in the day, of what is probably my last praying mantis photo of the year ...

I remember telling Sherry how much I missed photographing my backyard insects (and this was a month ago) and she told me to just go to a park and lift up some leaves and that I'd  find the bugs. "Oh, they're there Maria." It hasn't gotten to that point yet because I'm still bringing in my plants every night and putting them out again in the morning. And so every night a stinkbug or two comes in and also about a dozen lacewings. And in the morning they all go out again.

Last night Violet was captivated with a stinkbug that was active in the kitchen.

Violet would paw him down into that stack of  plastic pot covers for plants (I got them at a nursery years ago because I liked the colors-I've never used them though).

After the stinkbug got knocked down, he would just crawl back up the wall...to be pawed down again.

I had always been afraid (?) of stinkbugs because I thought the little things carried a concentrated stink like a skunk. I guess you can't shake them up that easy because I sure have tested them, and now, so has Violet. That stinkbug would not oblige us with a stink. He didn't care. Crawling up the wall and being knocked down was just something to do until he got to go out the next morning.

Interesting little stinkers, that's what they are. >:-)

And so, this should be the last bug post of the year and I'm closing it with a photo of this lazy girl. She's dragging her flying wings and that shadow is long but her makeup still looks good (even though I think she got a little carried away with the application of her beauty spots).