Bug of the month

[Wayne.C]

AK2DM,

My childhood was spent in Sierra Leone, West Africa.  There we worried about snakes both day and night.  GabonVipers were the absolute worst scenario. 

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Local bug of the month is the antlion. For years I had seen their pits and trails in the dirt but could never figure out what was responsible. Even excavated many pits and sifted through the dirt and never found the culprits. Just last year I was doing some research on a lacewing that is common out here and finally made the connection- it was the larval form who was making those mysterious trails and pits. Nasty looking little larval creatures and quite common throughout the worlds dry climates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antlion

-AK2DM

[tst]

Yes, we also have quite a few of those holes around here.

P.S. Here's my guy, I don't think you'd want to run into that in a dark alley.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe_weevil

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

tst:

That is one cool bug! I was thinking of your locale when I commented about the arid climates.

-AK2DM

[PaulG.]

I would see these pits once in a while in my wife's rose garden when we lived in Denver. She is a Denver native and knew what they were. We actually saw a larvae once. Scary looking little monster!

[Hornless.Rhino]

Looks a bit like an artistic swizzle stick.

[Wayne.C]

AK2DM,

Nice choice.  Grew up feeding these things ants and other assorted creepy crawlies.  Ever see the Star Trek movie 'Wrath of Khan'?  They used an enlarged version of the antlion as the creature Khan kept as a pet. 

Found this as well.  http://www.antlionpit.com/

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

Wayne:

Now that you mention it, yes a very striking similarity there. "They put creatures in our ears" is a line I use time to time 🙂

Thanks for the link, I'll have to check it out this weekend.

-AK2DM

[AnalogKid2DigitalMan]

On a related note, I have to fess up. Who else has all their childeren named after Star Trek captains?

Benjamin was named after Benjamin Sisko (Deep Space 9) and Jonathan named after Jonathan Archer (Enterprise).

Whew, that was tough 🙂

I better get them a football, a basketball, and some decent running shoes. 

-AK2DM

[Wayne.C]

AK2DM,

After my first daughter was born and the name announced, it was noted by a co-worker that her initials were IC.  Pure coincidence I swear  , but difficult to explain to a bunch of EE's.