New Pet

Dark spot is an ant I fed her for lunch...it's still alive and squirming.

Mmm...Nectar Good

I believe this small, dark butterfly is a silver-spotted skipper, Epargyreus clarus.

Friday Arthropod Blogging

Check out these awesome photos by Igor Siwanowicz.

Shangri-La

Among the ants there is a legend, a tale they tell of a place of unbearable sweetness in the sky.

Intrepid explorers, worn haggard from their trek across concrete and stubble, returned from the edge of world with the news. Limitless nectar is there, an ocean of it, sweet and precious. After an arduous climb up a massive black metal structure, the ants crossed a tenuous bridge and clung to the slippery slope around the nectar, so close they smelled the sugar.

But those who have returned are the ones who retreated from the slope. No ant has ever reached the sea of sweetness itself and come back alive. The explorers remain haunted by their brush with paradise. They wander the colony aimlessly, twitching their antennae at anyone who will listen. It is out there, this heaven, their waving feelers sign. It is, it is.

Eh, it’s a story, the other ants reply, and go on stroking the queen.

Friday Arthropod Blogging

For the bug-lovers among us.

Hi There!

Boxelder bug in kitchen sink.

Mourning Cloak

I did not take this picture, since the camera batteries DIED AGAIN while on my walk through the woods. The only other picture I had today was a mediocre crocus shot, and I thought I'd spare you another insipid fruit photo, so I borrowed the mourning cloak from Wikipedia.

Friday Photos

Mantid. Turned its head when I took its picture.



Fin du Monde. Ahhh. The creamy head, the incredible aroma, the spicy banana-clove fruity complexity. The beer you want with you at the end of the world. (No, they don't pay me.)