bugs: cute? or scary?

Would you look at the size of his forearms? He’s like the Popeye of little green flies. I have already submitted this to bugguide, and I’ll bet by the time I’m through drafting this post, some bug nerd  afficionado will have provided an ID. GOD, I love the interwebs.  Nearby, another flower had a visitor of its own:

I thank the lord that I am much larger than most insects I come across. They are truly terrifying, if you think about it. But also?

Sometimes kind of cute. I watched this little one groom itself with its back leg. And look at that fuzz! Don’t you just want to hug it? No?

The other day was apparently a spider hatching day. I let three gray-and-black spiders out of the house. I might have accidentally vacuumed others in a frenzy of cleaning. See, there goes my bug ambivalence again.

Annnnd yes, we have someone out there who thinks that Popeye fellow is an ambush bug - Phymata pennsylvanica. A type of assassin bug. I was just reading about assassin bugs. Apparently at least some of them have these long stabby things they use to suck the innards out of their prey. Yeah, I’m back to being scared. At any rate, the overlords of Bugguide will check into it within a few hours – those folks are serious.

What else can I report…I visited a tree I only got properly ID’d this year as a type of non-native dogwood – “cherry dogwood”. Now I know why it’s called that:

That’s a water droplet on the end – it’s been flirting with rain over the past day. I’ve been living here at dave for five years, and this is the first time I’ve noticed the fruit on this tree. Just goes to show – there is ALWAYS something new to see. (By the way, “dave” = the name of this property. That’s why we’re called “musings from dave”. Read about it here.)

Any other news? Oh, a trillium gone to seed.

Last but not least, we went out to a fundraiser tonight to help with long term recovery efforts after That Bitch Irene – today is the one year anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene, which as you may recall, did a number on us here in Vermont. The fundraiser was a by-donation-only showing of “Singin’ in the Rain”. What an awesome movie – long one of my favorites. It’s a movie, within a movie, within a movie – just like “Inception”’s dream within a dream within a dream. Only with better dance numbers.