insects

29 cucumber beetles caught today. Not much better. I got one of the red ones, here's a photo. Can you see how I was fooled into mistaking them for ladybugs at first?

I found some nice bugs hanging around on the Basil, though. Lots of fat happy bumblebees which ignore me entirely

and this beautiful tiny butterfly.

What was really curious about this guy was that I watched him rub the tail parts of his wings together- they looked like little feelers, not just decorative parts of the wing, and he moved them independently against each other while the main part of the wing held still.

I also spotted a gang of these bugs on a Pumpkin leaf. They must have just hatched- were crowded all together. When I came close for a photo they scattered. I wonder if they're the same bug as this one? and if they eat a pest for me or not?