What I love: bugs!

One of the things that I love about having a garden is the amount of tiny wildlife it attracts. I've found so many fascinating and beautiful insects and arachnids out there, sometimes I just have to share.

Take a look with me?

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Sometimes I really want to identify the things I see, but sometimes I just want to enjoy. Several of the insects shown here are still nymphs -- their immature phases -- and they can look very different from their adult forms. ID can be tricky or impossible, but I tried here.

This is an assassin bug nymph of some kind, which likes my new ribbon bush as much as I do it seems:

Also on the ribbon bush, a tiny tortoise!

Well, it looks like a tortoise shell at least. You'd think this might be a tortoise beetle, right? I'm not sure, since tortoise beetles seem to be more flat and rounded. (I seem to remember seeing something like this before...)

Is this a leafhopper of some kind?

These next ones I know: stinkbug nymphs!

These are attractive youngsters I think, which is a good thing since there are quite a few of them around:

Not everything is willing to be photographed:

I believe that's a bush cricket hiding inside an emerging cana leaf roll. He's dreaming that he's surfing...

These small, thin gnats? flies? moths? are found on pretty much anything that the bees visit:

I must learn what this is. Does anybody know?

Before I gardened I did not know that there were so many different types of flies:

Or such colorful spiders:

Do you search out the insects in your garden? Do you enjoy discovering them as much as I do?


Try taking a magnifying glass out into the garden. You'll see a lot more of the detail that these tiny animals are trying to share with you!

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