The bugs are still hanging on.

The hemizonia plants, on which I found so many bugs this past summer and fall, are all but dead. But there are still bugs to be found among its brown branches.


A small brown gray bird nymph.


And a green one.


This was an adult male gray bird.


The bladderpod plant has lost all of its leaves and looks dead. I'm pretty sure it's just dormant.


Harlequin bugs are clustered along the dry brown stems.


There were a great many red shouldered bugs on the woodland floor.


Here are a box elder bug, right, and a red shouldered bug for comparison. Even though there are more of the red shouldered bugs, I have been referring to them collectively as box elders. But I have been trying to be more accurate in my identification, if not at the arboretum (where most visitors would not know or care whether they're box elders or red shoulders) then, at least here on my blog.


In spite of the chilly day, this little caterpillar was busy eating this sunny orange flower. And there was a patch of milkweed down at the south end of the arboretum that had lots of monarch caterpillars, but when I ventured down there, I got busy showing them to a father and his two little girls, and I ended up forgetting to take pictures of the caterpillars.

You can see all my bug pictures from today, including more red shouldered bugs, on this Flickr set.