BUGS--

When you are walking in your favorite nature venue slow down and take a close peek at things. Peer under the leaves. Gently roll over an old rotting log. Your microscopic curiosity often will be surprisingly rewarding.

You will encounter insects, an amazing variety of insects. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. There are 20,000 species of grasshoppers alone; about 170,000 species of butterflies and moths, and, the granddaddy of all, the beetles, with some 360,000 species described to date.

Insects represent more than half of all known living organisms on Earth.

Insects are described as having segmented bodies with a head, a thorax and an abdomen. The head supports a pair of antennae. The thorax has six segmented legs. If it is a winged critter it will have two or four of them. The digestive, respiratory and reproductive systems are in the abdomen.

On a recent trek through my woods and fields I used a macro lens to record the top two photos and sent copies of my pictures to a favorite, local bug-ologist for identification. The best she could do was aphids for the tiny red critters top and a weevil below. Good enough for me!

While I was pondering the macro composition of the weevil photo the critter abruptly fell from its perch and plopped on its back on a lower leaf—and never moved again while I continued my photography.

I hope I didn’t cause it to have a heart attack.

The 1” diameter paper-like balls on my oak tree leaves are thought to be galls; often the home of a wasp larva. My curiosity stopped short of a surgical peek inside.

I was lucky to see the katydid (below). This green critter holding perfectly still on a green leaf was an excellent sample of natural camouflage. While they look like grasshoppers they are more closely related to crickets.

I can’t imagine what the huge glass eye of my camera’s lens must have looked like to these critters while I did my work. Most didn’t seem to mind my intrusion while they went about their business.

I chuckled while I imagined this situation reversed. If some giant critter approached my dinner table with a mechanical eye that appeared 30 feet in diameter I’d likely fade into unconsciousness like my little friend the weevil.