A few weeks ago I mentioned seeing an assassin bug on an alder in the Wetlands. This past Saturday (9/14) I spotted an egg case close by. The egg case is a dead ringer for that of Zelus luridus, the assassin which was spotted earlier.

A close look at the mass of eggs revealed that they had already hatched. There was no sign of the hatchlings, they must have already disbursed in search of prey.

I took several photos of the egg case. In one photo you can see the “lids” of two of the eggs off to the side.

Not seeing the young of the assassin bugs was disappointing, in a small way. But I also missed the emergence of the harvester butterfly. The chrysalis had been first seen as fully formed on September 4 and the butterfly had emerged on the 15th, 11 days later. I was, however, ready for disappointment.

The chrysalis had started darkening the day before, a sure sign the butterfly was ready to emerge. I thought, hoped, the butterfly would emerge on Saturday (9/14), but it was still in the chrysalis at 11 AM. It began to look more and more as though it would emerge the following day, Sunday. I am not in residence on Sundays. I was going to miss the event, and I knew it.

Back in August I posted images of a harvester laying eggs on the same alder pictured above. Perhaps there are more caterpillars about. There’s still time!