Let Sleeping Bugs Lie

The cicada at rest on the sidewalk recently brought back humourous memories of one a few years ago that buzzed up off the ground right into the leg of our grandson who performed an amusing dance step to escape his arthropod assailant. Lesson learned, we left this one alone.

Lesson forgotten; a short time later we found an iridescent green dung beetle on its back on the street, so I found a small dry leaf and turned the beetle over, then tried to move it off the road. Apparantly it had had enough of my “rescue” efforts and its wing covers parted and it buzzed into flight, right up the back of my leg and into my shorts! With a shout and a squirming, leg-shaking beetle dance, I got the offending insect on its way.

Of course, my dearly beloved was doubled over with laughter. I remarked that I couldn’t believe it had flown up my pants. “It’s a dung beetle,” she snickered, “it was looking for a meal.” I shook my head in resignation, but had to admit that had it not left my britches so soon, I might have provided it one.

#cicada #dungbeetle #insect #shorts