A Good Rain

It rained hard tuesday night. Come monday I had a mind to kayak a swollen creek, the strongest that runs through the forest. My friends who live near this creek were busy though, and that made the trip a no-go. I spent the afternoon doing some photography in the vicinity. The rain brought mushrooms, big-time, they were literally pooping out of the ground as I worked. BTW, afew of these picture are worth seeing bigger. you can Click to enlarge.




I realize now that a familiar piece of detritus (like the one on the left, below) is actually clover seeds.



...more bugs...

Those Green Flies

One of my first memories is of one of those shiny green flies on a pile of dog shit. I must have been about 18 months old.
I had corn on the cob this evening and the fallen soldiers attracted these flies in droves. They came out of nowhere, in no time flat there were dozens. I think that white part is the lungs.

A Spectre's Visage

"Christ! What was that thing? Something transparent just shot across the floor and went strait into the wall!" A small insect disturbs a room full of full grown men in military uniform.

We had these creatures in my barracks at prep school. I didn't encounter them often, but I vividly remember those times when one would sprint across our shiny, dust-free linoleum with obvious situational awareness. It was uncanny how these fluttery massless collections of legs always made the right move. Nobody ever caught or stomped one.

Years later, just the other day, I managed to catch one in my own house and take its picture.

Scutigera is its genus name. It's a tropical centipede. But it's so good at what it does that it has spread into colder climates by hanging out in places that we heat heat during the winter. I have a theory that their tiny eggs are often distributed by humans, like myself, who habitually leave their clothes on the floor.

What is does is kill. It's an nocturnal ambush predator with compound eyes and poison fangs. My casual observation is that it moves faster than other terrestrial insect and has dragonfly quality vision, it has an acute sense for vibration, with it's rear most set of legs adapted into psudo-antenna. It has cool barbs on it's knees and alternating tiger colors throughout.

I let her go outside. And was glad to see her a week later. She was hunting on the stone face of my exterior wall and sharing territory with a massive spider.