The daylilies are starting bloom now so I snapped a pre-full bloom picture of one of them. I decided to investigate this white flowering woody shrub that my mother says is a weed t(he shrub is most likely one of the invasive forms of privet that get everywhere) and found a bunch of insects all over it. . Turns out they’re margined soldier beetles which can have some variety in their morphology (they way they appear). Beetles are in the order Coleoptera which means “sheathed wing” referring to the fact that most beetles have 2 pairs of wings with the front pair hardened and protecting the back pair underneath. This is what gives beetles the appearance of having a shell.
Also found a harvestman, also known as daddy longlegs which are arachnids, like spiders, and not actually insects. The general rule of thumb difference is that insects have three body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen) and 3 pairs of legs, while arachnids have two body parts (cephalothorax [cephalo is of Greek origins and means head] and abdomen) and 4 pairs of legs.
phototerrascientia 