Why Did God Make Mosquitoes?

When Ray asks, Why did God make mosquitoes?, the emphasis is on, did.   Course you have to be an ignoramous or joking or fixing to try and annoy everybody to ask such a question in the first place.  Why did God make mosquitoes?

Yes.  It's a stupid question on multiple levels.  But a smart answer is, Some mosquitoes carry diseases that may kill people.  And since there are too many people, and most of the people are no damn good, well , that's why God made mosquitoes.

But if all that is true, and it may be, then,  here's another stupid question.  Why did God make Calephelis butterflies?

Yes.  It's a stupid question on multiple levels, but at least when considering the Calephelis butterfly species in these parts, an average theologist might be justified in asking,  Why did God make three of them almost just alike?

Yes.  It's another stupid question, maybe.  But not quite as stupid as the first stupid question, maybe.

Long (since 2006) have we pondered on an ever increasing pile of electric pictures of  Calephelis, also known as metalmark, butterflies.  The three species that we have potentially been taking pictures of, are, fatal, rounded and Rawson's.  Or, as the wise know them; C. nemesis, C. perditalis and C. rawsoni.  Here at last, we believe in our hearts are sample photos of each, as those particular individual butterflies occurred at the CB.

It's very hard to say for sure,  but seemingly if our CB pictures are indicative,  ane we have ided them correctly, of these metalmarks, Rawson's is the most likely in these parts, maybe.  

A pair of fatals

Rounded

Rawson's

New Dragonfly for CB, Yesterday

Micrathyria hagenii

Ha!  We just documented  the occurrence of  the 20th dragonfly species at the CB.  Imagine that.  No water.  Twenty dragonfly species.   Common names for this species include thornbrush or Festus dasher.

Bug Featured On This Venue, Eaten

Many may recall that this venue recently featured a new bug at the CB.  It is the bug with the stalked red eyes.  Well,  that bug is a small bug.  Small enough to serve as damselfly chow.  And here it is, on the menu.  As usual, the average viewer may wish to left click on the picuture to better espy the meal.

The trouble is, Ray keeps getting pictures of this particular dragonfly configuration.  Notice the rocket ship shaped black marks on the abominal segments.  Then, if you take the trouble to head over to Bugguide, you fine a bunch of similar looking damsels in the unknown female section.  Dang it to Hades!

Two New Muths on the CB Roster

These are geometers (Geometridae). To find these moths at the CB, all an average Lepidopterist need do is shuffle along through the grass and forbs. Shuffling spooks the little moths. They fly away yet usually lite nearby. If the lepidoperist we are now discussing has a camera, these moths may be photogenic. Photogenic in the sense that geometers often land upright on an exposed or partially exposed surface.

Scopula umbilicata

Leptostales pannaria

Another Too Early For Halloween Insect

Female Panorpa nuptialis

Band Contest! A Follow-Up to Band Day

First off, nobody should read the below. Too depressing. It’s like therapy for Crumby. Getting evil off his chest, maybe.

Yippee! Yesterday, from 4pm ‘til 10pm, most of the marching bands in these parts rehearsed for yet another band contest at the Berger Center. Yes. Once again Stinky Valley homeowners quailed inside their wretched domiciles as windows rattled and foundations cracked. Mercy! It’s hard to care about anything else when the noise pollution is at a zillion decibels. But Crumby, feebly fixing to try and recover from heart disease, stressed to the max by the noise, still had some sorry feelings left over for fellow Austinite and cyclist, Lance Armstrong.

Yes, thought Crumby. Lance and I have a lot in common besides residing in these parts and riding bicycles. Like apparently, we both used performance-enhancing drugs to perk up our jobs. For example, I mostly used legal drugs, like alcohol, when I needed to make up environmental reports. But in extreme circumstances requiring really difficult to make up reports, I may have used illegal drugs as well. You know? You got to do what you got to do. Even if it messes you up, down the road or bike lane.

Lance and I also apparently believe in watering our yards. Yes. While many allowed their yards to largely die during recent endless so-called droughts, our yards, mine and Lance’s, stayed green. Well honestly. The CB yard actually finally mostly died because we ran out the water budget. But our yard would have stayed green if we could have afforded the water. Lance could afford the water, so maybe his stayed green. However, I don’t know if Lance’s yard features any plants worth keeping green or not. Chances are, Lance’s yard is just introduced Eurasian weeds, but I don’t know that for a fact. It could be a paradise of native species.

So that’s that. I, Crumby, have endured another miserable 24 hours, suffering extreme noise pollution and comparing myself, not to Jesus, like I should, but to Lance Armstrong. Yes. It’s just another sad tale, typical of our glorious monopoly capital and imperial Homeland.

New Bug Identified

Yesterday, many may remember that a new bug accidentally turned up in the blister beetle picture.  Then Ray volunteered to go back this morning to see if he could get a better picture of the new bug in habitat. Amazingly,  this mornng, that's just what happened.  In Ray's own words:  I set out whilst the stygian darkness still gripped this part of the tiny planet known as Earth.  The mist fell, but I was undeterred by the mist, as well as the stygian darkness.  The search was long and lonely.  It took me nearly twenty minutes to find the bug, and in all that long time my only companions were pets; a dog and cat, or cat and dog. 

This particular bug, as this picture actually shows, is a fairly interesting bug.  It is a truly bug-eyed bug, for one thing. And we are pretty sure it is Hesperolabops gelastops.  No kidding.  Sitting atop Ambrosia cumanensis parts.

Blister Beetles

Note that the Pyrota featured in the previous entry to this venue is a blister beetle.  Before that, not long ago, we showed off a brown blister beetle.  The beetles featured in this entry are also blister beetles.  We have lots of blister beetles at the CB.  These all  black ones show up in the fall.  They hang on the broomweed mostly.   Sometimes they appear to be eating the flowers.  In the spring we have red ones, red and black ones and orange ones.

Ray took the trouble to catch these blister beetles because he wanted to show the size dimorphism between the sexes of this particular species.  However, that's hard to see in the photograph.  Yet the photograph is not a total loss because a new bug for the CB is included.  Apparently the bug is an early riser.  Because when Ray went back later, to get a picture of the bug in habitat, there were none.  No bugs.  Ray will try again early tomorrow morning if he remembers. 

All three vermin in this picture are in a jar.  To get them in the jar, Ray put the jar under the vermin, then tapped at the broomweed they were in with a stick.  Eventually all the vermin turned loose of the broomweed and dropped into the jar.  Getting the bug too, was totally lucky.

Ray did not want to touch the blister beetles or have them squirt cantharidin on him which is why he used a stick, a jar, and also wore gloves and goggles.  That's because cantharadin is an Afrodeeziac.  If you get squirted like in the eyes with cantharidin you could go blind, eventually.  And,  the juice could turn your sex organ big and black.  Which of course Ray definitely did not want to have happen to him, suddenly possessing a big, black sex organ.  Mercy!  How out of place would that look?

 

Insects for Halloween

Cisthene tenuifascia - a small lichen moth

It may not seem like the weather is right, too hot, but Samuin, that many call Halloweenie, I mean Halloween, is just around the bend or corner.   Appropriately, species new to the CB data base are turning up, maybe just for Samuin.  I spell this because the particular insects we are now discussing have some orange and black coloration on their persons or demi-persons.  And orange and black are, of course, the colors the monopoly capitalists who rule the Homeland wish us to associate with Halloween.  It's good for the economy.



Pyrota sp. Mylabrina Group maybe

Are Insects Infinite To Personal Experience?

Many feel like they shall never experience all the insects that shall occur in a limited space, like a backyard, over a period of say, 50 years.  That is because insects are infinite to personal experience.  Or, there is no way that one person may learn or observe all the insects.  Course, some might quibble.  You know, if the space one observes insects in is super limited, like say the insdie of a toaster oven, then given that limited space, the active entomologist could probably espy all the insect species that occur in the toaster oven, especially over a fifty year interval.  But of course we are now discussing insects distributed in nature or a facsimile thereof,  not the insides of a toaster over for Goddess sakes.

Eublemma recta

High falluting philosophy aside, we find that new insects turn up at the CB very often.  In a good week, we may espy multiple insects we don't remember .   That's why we try to photograph all of them.  So we can have a record to check against when we suspect a new species has been encountered.   Like this little yet handsome moth that was espied for the first time a week or two ago.

Is Watch Repair a Good Way to Make a Quick Buck?

That's what Crumby was thinking.  I can repair watches while getting paid in cash so I won't have to report the income.  There's no heavy lifting or seriously strenuous exertion, like with bicycles.  I could do that:  fix or repair watches.

But then Crumby,  in his usual, methodical way, began looking into watch repair as a part time, tax free, money making venture or adventure.   And Crumby discovered that mechanical watch repair is  a serious proposition.   Like for example, consider just lubrication, which is always important no matter what the average person may be considering on account of friction.  Yes, unwanted friction makes lubrication necessary in a great many activities or situations, but is particularly of concern to the mechanical watch fixer upper.  Alas, it turns out that the lubricants required for an average mechanical watch are 3-4 different oils and 1-2 greases.  Plus, some of those watch oils are very expensive, like $30 per ml.  But then an average watch fixer upper will maybe not use  even a ml of that particular oil up, before it goes bad.  My Goddess!  $30 per ml oil has a short shelf life.  Egaddess! Then the watch repairman, in addition to the oil and grease, needs to also purchase oil and grease application tools plus holders/dispensers.   Mercy!

But before the watch dude even gets to lube his rich, cash paying client's Rolex, he has to clean the crud out of it first.  Man alive!  Crumby has not yet figured all that out.  Here's just some of the stuff the watch dude or dudette might need:  rodico, Ronson lighter fluid, glass scratch brushes, various other brushes, mechanical or ultrasonic parts cleaner, associated mechanical or ultrasonice parts cleaner fluids, blower, microfiber cloths. Jeez Louise!

So,  Crumby has decided mechanical watch fixing may not be for him after all.  However, quartz watch fixing or maintenance  may still be on Crumby's horizion should he continue to live that long.

Helianthus maximiliana

This has been maybe the best year ever for the Helianthus max at the CB.  With all the rain, it grew big and tall, but then flopped over.  Like some of these stems are 10 feet long or I'm a dick, I mean duck.

Well though,  Helianthus max, in spite of the profusion of flowers, is not the insect attractant that some of the other Asteraceae are.  Considering Helianthus annua, Viguera dentata, Zexmenia hispida , Verbesina virginica, Solidago altissima;  H. max comes in last in terms of average insect popularity.   Why is that?  Only the WG knows.

However, an interesting blister beetle did turn up on the H. max  yesterday.

Mystery Dove Visits CB

For about a week now, many have seen this dove fooling around in these parts.  But yesterday, it was at the CB.  Yet the thing is, we don't know what kind of dove this is, or much else about it, apart from the fact that it is an albino.   Uh.  Is it OK to spell albino?  Or should we spell, pigmentally challenged? 

Nevertheless, this is a very small dove, maybe smaller than the Inca doves which are the usual small doves (apart from the ubiquitous soiled doves) in these parts.  This particular dove does not hang with the Inca doves though,  and has a different posture, more like a ground dove.  It may be somebody's escaped pet.  

Anyway, if you have lost a pet dove,  this may be it.

Stinky Valley BVs On Lunch Break

Actually, your bv eats and works simultaneously.  That's a bvs job.  Eating.  Yet one seldom encounters a fat bv.  Can't say that about humanoids.  Noper.  Fatties galore.

But espy this.  Apparently, some bvs may boss other bvs around.  Like the boss bv can tell the other bvs when they get to eat/work.  Then eventually, the entire deer is et up, no muss, no fuss. 

Gee.  I sure hope the depicted meal is deceased. 

Another interesting thing is, this scene occurred this morning along Ernest Robles Way.  Besides the shown bvs, a great many more were perched atop a nearby fence.  So many bvs were present, maybe 40, and so close to the road, that traffic was stopping.  How amazing is that?  People noticing something besides themselves.

Lycus arizonensis

These beetles are too early for Halloween.

Sleepy Time Pals

Here, after a busy day of slurping nectar and fornicating, we espy two male Eucernis, Bert and Ernie, settling down for a well-earned  nights' rest. 

Crumby and the Coffee

As most know,   the only coffee Crumby will normally drink is Chock Full O' Nuts Instant.  But since Crumby is the only person in these parts (maybe statewide) that actually drinks Chock Full O' Nuts instant, (none of the stores here carry it), he has to order his coffee from New York City (NYC).  Course  the NYC vendor  just featured a special on Crumby's Chock Full coffee, 20% off, so Crumby ordered a box.  The box comes with 12 jars inside.  But then when the box arrived, nobody was here to help Crumby fetch it from the front porch into the house. 

Oh dear!  According to Crumby that coffee box almost wrestled him to death' s foreboding door.  That's how weak  I have done got, Ray.  Formally, I could handily juggle four of them boxes.   But now just one is liable to be the death of me.  Plus,  the way I  only get two cups a day,  I'm liable to die long before I can drink my special coffee all up.

Yep.  Crumby's recovery, or not, is a cross we all bear.

Meanwhile, excitement at the CB reached a fever pitch yesterday when the termites took flight.  Depicted below is a termite swept from mid air,  then transferred from the butterfly net to a plastic jar, whence, it got its picture took, I mean taken. Now that was interesting watching thousands of termites take off from an unmown mess of bermuda grass in the worst neighbor's yard.  But what was even more interesting was that 100-200 green darner dragonflies were ambushing the bejesus out of those miserable termites.  It was incredible.  Termite wings ripped from the termites drifted on the breeze, stirred to frenzied dance at the swift passage of a dragon or two.  Yes.  I had to watch out lest the termite wings get in my eyes or nostrils.

You know, green darners are regular at the CB.  But not in huge numbers.  So how did they decide to all show up at once just in time to eat those termites, thus keeping the termites from eating the CB structures.  It was like a miracle.  A miracle from the Goddess. 

Band Day Survived

Band days are much like acne.  How, many may ask?   Easy that.  Mainly they are like acne because they are usually not fatal.  In other words, an average person may suffer from acne and band days, but not die as a result of acne or band days.  Course it is probably possible to die from either acne or band days,  but I didn't, yet.

Consider dying from band day exclusively.  The best time to die from band day might be the day before band day.  That way, the deceased would miss band day.  Sadly though, the dead person might succumb from anticipating or dreading the upcoming band day.  Alas.  That would be almost the same difference as dying on band day.  Except there would be no noise to deal with. 

So dying on band day might actually be better than dying the day before band day.  Except for the noise.

What about dying the day after band day?  I don't even like to think about that.  I can scarcely spell this out, that thought is so horrible.  Imagine, going through a band day, and then, finally free of the noise pollution or racket, one breathes a sigh of relief, but then dies after band day is all over.  My Goddess!  He died with a year to go until the next band day.

Band Day!

Stuff your ears with cotton! Break out the nerve tonic! Take a trip to Pluto! It’s Band Day!

That’s right. Today in Stinky Valley, noise pollution, always a distraction, reaches a crescendo. Band Day is upon us. Yes. A great many of the high school marching bands in these parts are teaming up (also teeming) with the Booger Center sound system to burst the ear drums of Stinky Valley property owners

Actually, inside the house, one mostly hears the famous Booger Noise sound system and, from the bands, the window rattling drum lines. Seems like high school bands in these parts feature mostly percussion these days. Which makes sense. Percussion is all the flag twirlers need. You know, for timing this bump or that grind. Yet outside, one may espy the pitiful tootling of the horns and reeds, squeaking and blatting away, oddly out of synch with the thundering percussion.

Whatever. Jeez Louise!

Oh my Goddess. I just remembered. Some years, there are two band days

The Cutest Arthropod

We're talking puppy cute.  Yet hardly any arthropods are cute like your average puppy.  But one group of arthropods, the jumping spiders of Family Salticidae, are in the same ballpark as puppies maybe.  This particular jumper, which we can't seem to identify to species, was hanging out on the pulley down thing on the mailbox yesterday.  Cute!

Another Druid Dichotomy

Which would you druther, a known taxon, or an unknown taxon?  Many may understand that a known taxon may be preferable in most situations, but that an unknown taxon may provide a refreshing break from the same old same old. But what if the taxon is beyond our ability to know it?  What about that?  For Goddess Sakes!

Like here is an example of the very same type of Druid dichotomay many are now considering.  The plant on which the male Prionyx parkeri (included for scale) is situated is a broomweed.  See how little those flowers are?  So which broomweed is it? 

Wicked Crumby Confesses

All right.  Since I am probably fixing to bloat in the sun like a deceased fish pretty soon, or anon, I need to get one or two fairly recent sins off my bosoms.  Like many may recall how I fixed my Seiko kinetic watch (5M42A) via the expedient of putting in a new capacitor.  Then, in my pride,  I bragged about it. 

But then also, two or three months later, that dern, stinking, Jap watch quit working again.  Yet did I fess up in  a public venue that my Rising Sun Seiko had quit again.  No.  Course I didn't.  I kept quiet like a sneaking, lying rat of a Booblican sinner, whore of Babylon.  Thus, probably multitudes figured my dang watch was still telling time.  Probably many rushed out to purchase those capacitors, thinking to themselves, those particular capacitors are the cure all for my slacker of a miserable Jap watch.

Well.  That all transpired many moons ago.  Like last year.  So today I am fooling around with that stinking watch again, espying it under the microscope, because that's the kind of bs the near dead can handle.  Hey!  The wires on that dern, stinking coil aint right.  A wire be cut and that coil is haywire.  Dang son-of-a-itchba or biscuit eater.

So the dern stinking Seiko quit again on account of one of its coils got its wire cut.  Possibly, the wire got cut when the rotor fell off due to its screw coming loose.  But who knows.  Maybe the Angel Moroni knows. 

Now, the only way to fix it, is to get a new coil off another similar Seiko (Okies spelled backasswards).  Not easy.  Mercy!  How many watches does the WG allow in the afterlife or life as we know it not?

The other sin, another sin of omission, I need to confess is, my plastic jug, butterfly feeder, killed a great many butterflies.  That's right.  And what is truly pitiful, ignorant and wicked, I made that jug just like what some nitwit Booblican would.  Yes.  I already knew butterflies are too dumb to savy opaque, white plastic.  I already knew this sad fact because of my personal experience with greenhouses covered in said plastic.  The butterflies are too dumb.  They fly in, but they don't fly out.  Mercy!

Yet, I constructed the plastic jug feeders with only the front half of the jug cut away.  Then, when the stupid butterflies wanted out, they would fly up, into the plastic instead of out the enormous hole provided, and beat their silly brains out. 

You know.  I actually think the WG may forgive this sin.  I mean, how can those butterflies be that stupid?  For Goddess Sakes and even Jeez Louise!

OK.  I feel better now, having publicly confessed to much of
my recent wickedness.


Yours truly,

Crumby