Today on my way home from work I met an unusual passenger. It was a
Heteroptera bug - not sure which kind exactly, and at first I wasn't really interested, because for some reason I can't stand those bugs. I'm normally interested in insects of all kinds, but, yuck, Heteroptera I just hate. Maybe it's a childhood thing - I do remember as a little girl rooting around in raspberry bushes and getting my hands all stinky from these critters. Which wasn't helped by an experience in Prague the summer when I was twelve - we went to the Natural History Museum, which was a great place generally, but they had some Heteroptera there in the insect section that were just GIGANTIC. I remember the biggest as being saucer-size or even worse. As big as dinner plates!! :-o My childish mind may have exaggerated their size, but still, it creeped me out. And I
can't stand 'em!
So, my initial instinct was to stomp on my fellow traveller and crush him/her like a ... well, like a bug, obviously. But I managed to quell this base feeling and did not in fact kill anyone. Aah, how sweet to rise above one's primitive nature. Instead of squashing it, I ...
... rescued it from its hopeless situation in a hostile environment ...
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... by letting it actually climb onto my hand ... !! ...
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... and released it into some shrubbery by the mall parking lot ...
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... where it obviously was much happier. Well, if it had had a brain and could experience happiness it would have been, anyway.
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My good deed for the day was well and truly done.
5 comments:
For en søt liten historie som varmet mitt biologhjerte. :-)
Det ser ut som en bærtege (tror noen kaller dem bærfis), de skiller ut en illeluktende (og illesmakende) kjærtelvæske på bær.
Det er ganske fantastisk å se slike skapninger på nært hold. Takk for fine bilder.
that is funny, I had a little visitor in my hotel room, the little bugger had decided to take a nap in my shoe, only noticed as I was checking out of the hotel, can you imagine the face on the receptionist as I left in mid conversation and took of shoe outside the door. I only got a mail from a bug expert this evening though I think he has it classified wrong
have sent a pic of the little chap to you
Pernille: tusen takk, det var en veldig hyggelig kommentar. Da fikk jeg enda bedre samvittighet for at jeg ikke moste det ekle krypet. ;-) Bærtege, det er meget mulig, jeg pleier å treffe 2 ulike typer teger på min ferd, det er sånne som den på bildene her (skjønt de pleier å være noe mindre) og en annen type som er helt knallgrønn. Stinker gjør de begge to, fysjomatte.
Jeg er helt enig i at insekter er fantastiske, men akkurat teger kan jeg bare ikke noe med. Men nå føler jeg meg litt mildere stemt, jeg skal innrømme det. :-)
Takk for besøket, velkommen tilbake!
Paz: lol, funny story!! I got the picture, and I did a little googling, and this is interesting - in English one of the colloquial names for those beetles is 'snout beetle', and the Norwegian name for them, snutebille, means exactly that. Fun coinkydink IMO. :-) But I guess you would normally call them weevils?
What did the expert tell you since you think he's wrong ... ??
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