critters

 Fat broad-head skink on a stump

Leaping insect that definitely eats plants. I think it's a katydid? My youngest protested when I said I would "recycle its body into worm food" so we released it in the woods behind our neighborhood during a trail walk. 

Insect I found in the garden on the sunberry bush. Don't know what it is, but the front legs definitely look like they aim to grab others- predatory. 

I keep finding and doing away with the striped beetles, only one at a time now so their numbers are diminishing. And brown stink bugs. And there's lots of whitefly on the sunberry, leaves full of small holes. However this doesn't seem to affect the fruit ripening, and the whitefly appears to be more attracted to the sunberry plant than to the chard in the next garden spot, so I did nothing to deter them. If sunberry acts a trap plant for me, that's great. 

Tiny spider with front legs held like a scorpion- only I couldn't get close (on the turtlehead):

And today also on turtlehead I saw the first preying mantis! 

Brown one