A Present
So sometimes you have this puppy who needs a little operation, and then they tell you he can’t run or jump or swim for two weeks, and he has to wear the e-collar the whole time!
Oh sure, he looks so cute and innocent.
And he’s so bored because he can’t go outside, that he is chewing everything he can find including your book Oxford History of Modern Art, and he keeps bashing that big plastic cone into everything, including the back of your leg, especially when you are trying to carry homemade nectar out to the hummingbird feeder, so it splashes everywhere and you and the floor and the cabinets are all sticky, and how were you to know he could knock the fire extinguisher out of its bracket?!!
So eventually you say, “Okay, it’s been almost a week, we will go out, not for a walk, but just for a nice quiet sit with the sheep.”
But the sheep are freaked out by the alien-looking e-collar, and keep running to get away from it, and the dog thinks that is hilarious, and goes off and hides in the bushes, and then pops back out at them and they are all crashing into each other, and you CANNOT TAKE IT ANY MORE!
And then you look down on the ground, and see that the universe, understanding that you are having a very bad day, is giving you a little pat on the back, and is saying, “There there.”
Because there is this fabulous bug that you have never seen before, and it is sitting right there waiting for you to take pictures of it.
And your camp chair is right there, so you can place the bug on a background that will make focusing easy.
And when you get in the house and do your research, you think that you have figured out what beetle this is, but you ask for an identification on BugGuide.net to be sure, because after all you are just a humble art major.
And some nice expert tells you that it is Stenelytrana emarginata. Which is not in any of your books.
And further research reveals that it does not seem to have a common name.
And you are thinking that if you got to pick a common name, you would choose something like the “candygram” beetle, because it was such a nice surprise.
What a delightful find your “candygram” beetle was! – particularly when your day was so trying.
Yes, it was just a series of minor annoyances that was making me sigh heavily a lot, so the beetle shifted me from “woe-is-me” to “what-is-THAT?” 🙂
You are the only person I know who would consider this such a special gift! It’s a delightful, positive attitude toward the world.
Or else I’ve been hanging out on entomology websites too much. 🙂
Just kidding, thank you for the very nice comment!
I’m old enough that the word candygram brings a land shark to mind. 😉
How exciting that you found a new beetle, and I must admit, it is rather pretty. We are getting ready for the 17-year cicadas to emerge. The exoskeletons are showing up everywhere, and the entire ordeal is already creeping me out.
Poor puppy. I hope he gets his collar off soon.
Yes, I am hoping that it is indeed just a candygram, and not a land shark about to eat all the trees, since I read their larva eat dead trees. But supposedly they are rare enough that they can’t do much damage. (Unless they mutate or something. And then my post will look pretty naive.)
We have annual cicadas here and they look pretty tame compared to your 17-year ones! Plus we have lots of big bugs here all year round, so the emergence must really seem strange to you people who get a nice bug-free winter. Be brave and it will be over soon. 🙂