Bugs…..again.

But they’re wickedly cool, and everywhere. I archive what I come across as I go each day, stumbling upon interesting insects with a regularity that is unreal. Some encounters, like the predacious wasps dragging their prize kills across the patio, really should come with comical incidental music.

Many of the solitary wasps we’re seeing paralyze their prey, drag it to a nearby burrow, lay an egg on it which produces a hungry grub that will eat the host alive as it matures. This is pest control that is downright Medieval. The three rust-colored, horned beetles in the lower photos also drew the short straw, having the misfortune of emerging above ground from their brood chambers for the first time…..right above a large carpenter ant nest. “Uh….we took a wrong turn. Hello world!?” The ants wasted nothing but the exoskeleton wrappers.

Most of the nifty looking true bugs (hemiptera) – leaf legged…shield shaped…diced patterned edges – are serious garden pests so some here were dispatched shortly after photographing. Same fate befell caterpillar pests eating bean and food tree leaves. The rest I just let be in admiration.

The bee-mimic fly male and female mating ritual on the wing was hilarious to witness. One rested in place and the other did aerial maneuvers at close range to impress. Speaking of which, I must have impressed the hell out of a large green cicada yesterday while practicing my bagpipes. It was looking for a mate and I won with all that tuneful racket. Landed right on my chest, scaring me to a halt mid-tune.