the beetle yard

as we started working the backyard, more and more cool bugs were turning up.
tilling the garden and breaking up the rotting tree roots, i found several of these.

huge with eggs, this lady was going nowhere fast. i think these are a variety of longhorn beetles...called Pine Sawyers.

almost every time i went outside, i found a bess beetle. either walking around the yard, or on a log, or in the rotting stump.
i started thinking about the night life of the backyard...what was i missing if i was finding this many beetles during the day?
one night, armed with a little led light and my iphone, i went out into the yard for an adventure.

the rotting stump was full of life!

it was very cool to see, and totally makes me want to set up a sheet with a blacklight some night to see what i can find.
i peeked around the logs that we moved to the side of the yard, some of them were hollow and rotting too.

most of them had wild mushroom growth, and small bugs going wild inside. very cool!