Scymnus

All righty! Photographing bees on the Phystostegia correllii is exceptionally hard work. Course, photographing the wild bees is hard anyway, because they are so busy. Yes. They are busy, nervous and fast. They hardly ever sit still unless they fall asleep.

Like one time Crumby saw this little bee go into a Phystostegia blossom. Then Crumby was waiting fairly patiently for the bee to come out. But it didn’t come out. Crumby waited some more. It didn’t come out. Crumby ran out of patience.

What’s that dang bee doing in there? Crumby peeked in the blossom. There was the little bee settled in, fast asleep.

This is just an example of the hard work Crumby alluded to above. Crumby figures the best opportunity to get a shot of a bee is when it is entering or exiting the blossom orifice. However, maybe not. At any rate, the bees do sometimes go in, then stay way too long, outlasting Crumby’s limited patience.

Or, you may know that some bees, like the large carpenter bees, chew holes at the base of the blossoms. This sucks for two reason. First, the blossoms don’t get pollinated. And second, the really little pollinator bees that go in by the front door may easily slip out the back door or chewed out carpenter bee hole, thus evading Crumby's camera.

That’s right. Crumby is waiting patiently for the bee to come back out. Meantime, the dern bee has hooked it out the back way. How aggravating is that?

All of which is to say, Crumby is not ready with his major project, The Bees that get on Physostegia correllii. Plus, there is another Physostegia that grows near the CB. Crumby fells like it may be Physostegia pulchella. But its sort of in a garden so there is no telling what Physostegia it may actually be. Could be anything. Nobody knows for sure. But Crumby has included some information on that Physostegia too in the upcoming The Bees that get on Physostegia correllii, particularly because casual observation indicates the possibly unknown Physostegia draws lots of honey bees which also chew holes in the bases of the blossoms. Weird!

Anyhow, none of that is ready. Alternatively, Scymnus larvae remind Crumby of those little mop like dogs. Here is an example. If you look carefully, you may espy the head of an aphid sticking out from, Crumby hopes, the anterior end of the Scymnus larvae. Scymnus larvae eat aphids. Uh. Or they sit on them.




Presumably, this is an adult Scymnus. The Scymnus are tiny lady bug beetles. This adult is under 2mm. During the nanosecond of time or space this picture represents, this particular Scymnus was lost in lust. Yes. This behavior is part and parcel of the fornication ritual or an example of Coleopteran sexual frenzy. Or, this beetle may be fixing to fly away.

You Never Forget How

Of all the bullshit Crumby was fixing to learn during his Christian Americano upbringing, the only surely true bullshit was, Once you learn how to ride a bicycle, you never forget how. That’s right. You never forget how. Even if you don’t ride a bicycle for many years, you can easily jump on a bicycle anytime and away you go, lickety split. Christ on a bicycle!!!!

For example, Karl the Tracker Druid told Ray, and Ray told Crumby, about this one time when Prissy and Ajax, totally disappeared. You may recall that Prissy and Ajax are a saddle horse and pack mule respectively. Karl, of course, was totally distraught at the loss of his equine friends. Not to mention, Karl’s tracker business was ruined. He had no transportation and no colleagues available for consultation.

But the situation was fixing to get even worse. Anon, Karl received a ransom note from rustlers. The note read:

Dear Karl the Tracker Druid,

We have rustled your stock. You need to pay us a million dollars. Otherwise, you shall never see your pet horse and mule again, alive. Plus the mule is giving us a lot of trouble. So if you don’t pay up really fast, we shall sell the mule to an interested dog food vendor.

Here’s what you must do to get your pets back.

The rest of the ransom note provided instructions on where Karl was to leave the money. Only once they had received the money or million dollars would those rustlers release Prissy and Ajax.

Hmm. I am not fixing to put up with this for even a nanosecond, Karl said to himself. But how the heck am I supposed to get along without any transportation. I need a ride to get Prissy and Ajax back. Mercy!

As the tracker stared out his office window despondently, fretting for his lost friends and business partners, Karl suddenly remembered, I have a dang bicycle.

Yes. Karl had a bicycle stored in the shed. Let’s see here. Well. The bell still works. And I can get some of my tracking gear in this basket. But the tires are flat.

Yes. The tires were flat. But Karl found replacement tires, tubes, and rim jobs on Ebay. Karl paid extra for overnight delivery. Then Karl discovered, once he got the new tires on, that the wheels wobbled. They wobbled so much they hit the brake pads of the caliper brakes.

Yet elbow grease got that bicycle up to snuff after a while. Anon, Karl was off, lickety split. Because, you never forget how. Yes. Karl was off, tracking down the rustlers on his unsafe at any speed bicycle. Not only was the bicycle unsafe at any speed, that particular bicycle was too tall for Karl. Correct. When Karl stopped the bicycle, he had to stop adjacent to a curb because his feet could not touch the ground otherwise, on or out of the saddle. Dang, thought Karl. I must have shrunk.

However, Karl is the greatest of all trackers the world has ever seen or acknowledged. But the rustler hideout was up in the mountains. Jeez Louise, thought Karl. I thought my bicycle had more gears than just this one. But Karl, despite having just the one gear, kept on peddling. You never forget how. But you may need to eventually get off and push the bicycle for a ways on up the hill or mountain.

Eventually Karl rode his bicycle close enough to actually epsy the rustler hideout through his trusty binoculars. Yes. There was Prissy. There was Ajax. They were cruelly hobbled next to the hideout with only a little horseweed (Conyza canadensis) for company.

Karl made a plan. The plan was to hang the rustlers by their miserable necks until those dirty bastards were sincerely dead. After Karl hung the rustlers, Karl rode Prissy back to his office. Ajax had to tote the bicycle.

So that’s how Karl was able to recover his lost business associates and property. All because, You never forget how.

Nasty, Nasty, Nasty (Revised)

adult border patch (Chlosyne lacinia)











Border patch caterpillars are a plague on the annual sunflowers. Goodness. They can eat up a great big leaf in a few hours. It’s like, Biblical. Mercy!




They have gotten so bad at the CB, Crumby has taken to thumping them. Correct. Most of these got thumped once Crumby took their picture. Yes. Crumby seems to be the only predator besides Podisus the bug. And those bugs are weak sisters compared to these r-selected dynamos.




Yes. Crumby would rather have the annual sunflowers which are flowering and fixing to produce sunflower seeds, than instant compost. Plus, these little boogers eat up the Verbesina and the Viguera too. Gracious sakes alive, Ma!






We may have too many.








At least they don't seem to eat the adults favorite food plants, firewheel and orange zexmenia.







Oops! Wrong about the zexmenia. Here they are, older ones, eating up that too. It's probably safe to say these voracious vermin will eat up just about every Asteracea in your yard.

Snout Moth Invades Men’s Comfort Station

At the CB we have a good many Crambidae snout moths of the genus Pyrausta. Typically, these little pink moths stay outside on the flowers. But this kind (Pyrausta perrubralis), which has never been observed on the flowers outide, came inside. Naturally, it has now become famous, a part or parcel of Crumby’s Moths or Muths in the Men’s Comfort Station peekture series.

A bit of advice for all you combined nature lovers and peekture takers. Always take your camera into the comfort station. Because there is always plenty of wildlife in the restroom.

One more thing! Science needs to discover if any of the snout moths are uniquely associated with a snout bean. That’s what science needs to do instead of working on all these drugs that are rapidly turning the Americano doctors or so-called medical profession into mere dope peddlers.

A Super Sodom Wasp Mimic

Whut’s ailin’ thet wusps haid granny?

That’s what Jethro wanted to know.

Good Goddess! What’s this moth or muth mimicing? Is it doing Polistes exclamans, Polistes apachus or one of the bigger potter wasps? Good Goddess! Crumby was confused.

Hark! This may be the best picture of Vitacea admiranda ever. Or, it may be another, different Vitacea. Or, it could be somthing else entirely. Good Goddess!

Duh! Reckon what plants the genus Vitacea messes with?

Rayetta's Butterflies - Another New CB Butterfly Documentation System Record

Rayetta has been sitting on this one for a spell. That's because metalmarks are not easy to identify. In previous years at the CB we never noticed any metalmarks until the fall. But this year we have some already. And these may be Rawson' metalmark (Calephelis rawsoni) versus the one we have identified previously as the fatal metalmark (Calephelis nemesis).

Rawson' metalmark maybe on an oregano cultivar.

Meandering Thoughts

As anyone with a lick of sense knows, Druids believe that all the different plants and animals are important because they are alive. Yes. They are important unto themselves, because they are alive. Yes. Because they are alive, they are all fixing to do something. Maybe not much, but something. Then, once everyone, all life, has done a little something, everyone gets recycled, one way or another.

That’s what the Druids happen to know or believe. Others believe more. Oh yea verily, much more.

When Crumby discovers an unfamiliar bug at the CB, an almost daily occurrence, Crumby must then learn as much about that bug or vermin as possible. The bug does a little something, so does Crumby. That’s how those twain are hooked up, don’t you know. That’s how their twain lives mesh. Maybe, if Crumby likes what the bug is fixing to do, or it’s a pretty bug, Crumby shall provide that bug with a treat.

Here ye go. Such a good bug. Such a purty bug. Here’s some nice molasses fer ye. Now watch out ye don’t get stuck in it and drown. Mercy!

Yet, fixing to learn something about an obscure bug is not always easy. Although, the more you know, the easier it is to know more, less what you forgot in the mean time. But all that is off topic, a detour, an evasion.

So Crumby is fixing to learn more about Conura amoena, depicted electrically adjacent left (on Pavonia lasiopetala) and below. The adjacent left is brand new. Turns out, Conura amoena is a parasitic wasp, Family Chalcidiae. But so what. What does it parasitize? That’s what Crumby wants to figure out. Is it fixing to eat my dang bees, dern it?

Crumby searched and searched, but as usual, the better search engine, Google, produced little beyond the name and a miserable peekture or two, while the inferior search engine produced less. Much less. But then Crumby espied, Meandering Thoughts. Meandering Thoughts is the blog of a lady who happens to be the proprietress of a butterfly farm. That’s correct. She and her husband are butterfly farmers. Yet she is also a professed Christian. So naturally, everything the butterflies do on the farm reminds the proprietress of a lesson or parable. Like for example, metamorphosis from chrysalis to butterfly is similar to a Christian dying and then going to heaven. Only metamorphosis is nowhere near as good as going to heaven because we are better than butterflies in every way and God loves us lots more than he loves butterflies. So even though butterfly metamorphosis is more spectacular visually than going to heaven is, well, you have to use your dang imagination. Goodness!

All that said though, this lady claims to know a victim of this particular parasitic wasp. She writes that a victim is the cloudless sulphur (Phoebis sennae) and that the parasite attacks the chrysalis. Unfortunately, Crumby can not get at any of the pictures indicating this parasitic act because every time Crumby clicks on a likely spot on that blog, he is wafted off to a butterfly farm supply site advertisement. How crazy is that?

Well. Leave it to a Christian to figure out how to make a bunch of money exploiting butterflies for Goddess sake.

The Crimson Patch (Chlosyne janais), Caterpillar

Crimson patch butterflies are frequently observed this season of this year at the CB. In previous years we have had one or two beat up individuals show up late, around summer’s end in October. Apparently, they are now breeding here as evidenced by this crimson patch caterpillar. Oddly, this caterpillar is on, and was observed eating, Ruellia drummondiana. That’s good. We have plenty.

Course the Ruellia grows right next to the Anisacanthus, the normal larval food plant, so maybe this one is just mixed up. Yes. Ruellia and Anisacanthus are both in the Acanthaceae.

Check this thing out!

Mercy! Crumby is innocently working on a project. The purpose of the project is to take pictures of and identify all the great many bee genera or species that come to Physostegia correllii. Well mercy!

Suddenly this little vermin which is under 5mm in length lands on a leaf. At a distance Crumby figures, well, that could be a Hymenopteran. So Crumby took its picture. Fer heaven’s sake! What the heck is it?

Thunder thighs! Er. Thunder tibia!

Huh! OK. It's actually the femurs that are swole' up. Turns out, this is a parasitic wasp, Family Chalcidiae, Conura amoena. Boy howdy! Every household should have a copy of Borrow, Delong and Triplehorn.

The Pollinators Maybe

Crumby enjoys espying what’s on what. Heck. If you have all these plants and all these bugs may as well take notice.

The CB Lactucas, both serriola and ludoviciana bloom all day. Hundreds of flowers are represented. Yet Crumby has only ever espied one species of insect on any of those many flowers. And Crumby looks. Oh yes. Crumby looks. Here is that one insect visitor to the Lactuca flowers, Horace’s duskywing.


Then we have two more plant species at the CB that get few visitors.


The CB does not have much Solanum elaeagnifiolium. Plus Crumby does not look at it much, only once or twice every day. The only insect visitor Crumby has noted is the American bumblebee (Bombus pensylvanicus).



And it’s the same with Clematis pitcheri. However, Crumby watches for visitors way more at the Clematis than at the Solanum. Still just bumblebees.

This is Not Helping

At this nonce, after 6.6" of rain over the last twain weeks, the mosquitoes are bad. So bad, that the little secesh children can’t be chained up outside while the responsible adults get drunk. Why? Because those many mosquitoes can suck a tot dry in a minute or two. Then, the responsible party that left that unlucky baby or child unattended with nothing but mosquitoes for company, shall be convicted of that terrible neglectful crime, allowing a child to be sucked dry, and subsequently sent off to the penitentiary. Leaving that toddler with the mosquitoes is just like if you left it in a hot car or discarded ice box or church while you went off to gamble or whore. It’s the same difference.

Why even the elderly can be sucked dry in a matter of minutes. That’s why Crumby is wary of going out tonight for a session of average amateur astronomy. What’s the point? The clouds of mosquitoes block the star shine.

So with all the mosquitoes going crazy, the dragonflies have hopped it to the CB. The dragonflies are helping Crumby out. Yum, yum eat ‘em up. Mighty fine! Except, now the dern robber flies are getting the dragon flies. Jeez Louise! Leave my dragonflies alone you worthless dang, big, old, dern fly. Crumby is not fixing to put up with this kind of behavior.

Promachus hinei sucking on Tramea onusta.

Error: This robber fly is P. hinei, not painteri.

Those Dern Insects

A great many insects previously unknown to Crumby have descended upon the CB. Plenty of entertainment for Crumby. Only trouble is, all these insects need to be identified to the lowest possible taxon level. That’s hard work. So the paucity of new information on this venue is a result of Crumby getting himself overwhelmed by all the great many insects he has taken or is fixing to take pictures of.

Here’s an example. Crumby hates it when he can’ do any better than, Duh, robber fly with a tree hopper.

Owl Fly

Have you ever seen an owl fly?

Sure.

You’ve seen an owl fly?

Course I have.

Dang it. Not the bird, the dern insect. One of those, have you seen it?

No.

There Crumby was, moseying happily along. Yes. Crumby could easily go along because Ray had mowed a path through the weeds next to the Valburn dirt exclosure or inclosure. Huh-huh. Only aggies spell exclosure.

Hark! Suddenly a bug totally outside Crumby’s experience flew up out of the weeds and into the chicken wire fence. Frantically Crumby attempted to operate his semi-trusty, antiquated, cranky dslr. Here’s what happened.

OK. This owl fly image leaves much to the imagination. Still, one can easily determine that it is an owl fly thanks to some important parts of owl fly anatomy in good, though not great, focus. Crumby only got the one shot. Matter of fact, there don’t seem to be many good owl fly shots around, anyplace.

The owl fly, or properly spelled, owlfly, that spooked Crumby was entirely new to Crumby’s experience. However, Crumby has now done research, learning somewhat of owlflies. For example, this particular owlfly we are now dealing with may be a member of the genus Ululodes of the Family Ascalaphidae. Further, it may be crepuscular. Owlfiles also allegedly come to lights at night.

Yesterday evening around dusk, Crumby, desiring a better owlfly photo decided to either capture an owlfly with the butterfly net, or pounce on an owlfly that came to the night light Crumby set out. Alas. You have to see an owlfly before you can catch it. None turned up.

But if any had turned up, they would have had plenty of mosquitoes to eat.

Sky Watch

As everyone knows, Crumby’s favorite newspaper feature is Sky Watch. This week, Sky Watch asked the question, When will Venus, the planet not the Love Goddess, get closest to Regulus, the Heart of Leo? Well. Tonight’s the night. Tonight is the closest Venus is fixing to get to Regulus as viewed from Earth this year. They will appear to be very close tonight, all righty. However, Crumby won’t get to espy the described heavenly phenomena because the skies in these parts are not clear. No. They are cloudy, thus precluding a view of the ongoing celestial wonders or events. Shucks! actually it's tomorrow night. Crumby thought today was the 9th.

Merci! Ma! Sky Watch today spells that Venus and Regulus are closest tonight answering the original question. Yet, unless Crumby has gone crazy, the usually reliable Cartes du Ciel program indicates those twain were closest last night.

Whatever! Last night Crumby set up to take a picture. Course the mosquitoes had something to say about that. Anon, after suffering kajillions of bites, a dead camera battery, a mysterious hot pixel type phenomena on the LCD while using live view and gummy knobs on the focusing rail, Crumby gave up. There shall be no picture of the near-conjunction of Venus with Regulus. Tough titties!

And today, Crumby needs to figure out the hot pixel type phenomena in the camera plus analyze why the knobs on the focusing rail have apparently melted.

What Crumby should actually do is delete this miserable post. Goodness!

The Four Families

Huh-huh. Aeshnidae, Gomphidae, Cordullidae and Libelluilidae are the four families of dragonflies that dwell in these parts. Of these families, only the Libelluids , with 17 species, are well-represented at the CB. Considering the Aeshnidae, the CB features only the green darner (Anax junius) which apparently occurs everywhere. Yet yesterday, a new family representative turned up. Why it’s a feminine eastern ringtail (Erpetogomphus designatus) of the Gomphidae. Never thought to espy a Gomphid at the high and dry CB. But that’s hurricane weather, fer ye.

Sadly, the CB lacks still a member of the Corduliidae, alas.

Do you have, Didymops?

No. We have Celthemis and Dythemis.

Do you have, Macromia?

No. We have Erythemis and Erythrodiplax.

Do you have Epitheca?

No. We have Libellula, Orthemis and Pachydiplax.

Do you have Neurocordulia?

No. We have Pantala, Perithemis, Sympetrum and Tramea.

Huh-huh. Druid mnemonics!

Sometimes!

So this tiny damsel fly has been hanging out at the CB for more than a week. Crumby has seen it twice, the first time, and today. Normally, Crumby would not get excited about a damsel fly, but this particular damselfly looked green and gold. Plus it looked really tiny, like under a inch or about 20mm. Little.

Yes. Little and extremely sneaky and nervous. Yet today Crumby managed to get in one and only one peekture before the damsel hooked it. This is a male citrine forktail (Ischnura hastata). The peekture won't stand much magnification due to camera shake.

Pretty Much Finally Decided at Last

Crumby has pretty much decided that the next CB camera is fixing to be a Canon, most likely the 7d. But we shall probably hang on to the Olympus gear. That’s right. The E330 is worth zip anyhow. Especially since everything on it that was glued has come unglued. Gracious! Crumby actually gave up on the rubber hand grip. It’s now off for good.

So what could Crumby vend the E330 for? Scrap! Also, the 14-54mm lens is the only lens we have that autofocuses properly. And we don’t know if that’s the fault of the lenses or the body. It’s probably the body because the Olympus website no longer recognizes our E330.

Ma! There are plenty of reasons to ditch Olympus. There’s the glueless glue. The crapshoot firmware upgrades. The measly lens selection (nothing long) and almost no third party. The noise above base ISO, whatever that may be. The low light incapacity.

All that said, Crumby has decided to keep the gear. Like maybe someday Olympus shall produce a decent camera body and Crumby can then replace the E330. But in the meantime we need a camera that can take pictures of moving objects in less than optimal light. And Olympus does not make a camera that even comes close to the competition.

All that said, Crumby has been very happy with the FL 36 flash in combo with the Sigma 150mm macro. These subjects are all inert, pretty much a necessity for the pathetic E330 autofocus, but the lighting is also, absent flash, way less than optimal. It’s cloudy out. Hence the flash. Sabby!

Sample 1 - Fornicating Mallophora fautrix








Sample 2 - Eremythemis simplicicollis, maiden









Sample 3 - Lycomorpha pholus - new moth or muth recorded for CB

What’s that? Lycomorpha. Hey. That reminds Crumby of Lagamorpha. What if Crumby wished to photograph a bunny, hoppin’ in the gloamin’. Well. That’s why Crumby needs a 7d.

Silphium mysterianus (Crock)*

Yes. Silphium mysterinaus is quite the bee draw. Not only is this particular Silphium a great bee draw, it draws large, good-looking bees like this one, Svastra obliqua.

Dang. OK. The pot or bucket that Siphium mysterianus stays in at the CB is not draining. We need to unplug the tiny drain holes to keep the Silphium mysterianus from drowning.

Yes. Silphium mysterianus may be adapted to wetter soils than some of the other Silphiums, but it's not entirely aquatic either.

OK. What are the various common names somebody applied to Silphium mysterianus? Well there’s mystery rosinweed, non-jurisdictional wetland rosinweed, anus rosinweed, big bee rosinweed, soggy bottom rosinweed, rough bottom rosinweed, bottoms in general rosinweed and happy sunflower rosinweed.

* Long has Crumby Ovate threatened that he was fixing to start making up names for those species nobody knows what is/are. Handily, Dr. Crock has agreed to sponsor all the new synonomy that is liable to emerge on this site.

Rayetta’s Butterflies - Nysa Roadside-Skipper

Gimme that Crumby.

That’s right. Rayetta needed the camera to take a picture of a butterfly. And that’s how Rayetta asks nicely. Gimme that Crumby. Mercy!

Anyway, cloudy weather photography with flash is turning out to be kick ass. Here’s a newly documented butterfly, the first new butterfly for the CB in quite a spell, Amblyscirtes nysa. Maybe Hurricane what’s its name is stirring up all these new species for the CB. If so, it’s the first hurricane in Crumby’s long experience that has ever been worth a damn. The CB even got some rain which is unheard during hurricane events in these parts.

Too Dark, Use a Flash

Olympus cameras can’t handle the darkness. Even a cloudy day messes them up. So Crumby dug up the flash yesterday, stuck it on the camera with the Sigma 150mm and headed out to the east pasture to see how long he could tote that combo before photo elbow set in. Photo elbow is probably much like tennis elbow and maybe just as sissy.

I got to pace myself, Crumby thought, otherwise this gear shall wear me out sooner than anon. Plus I could hurt my elbow. Crumby wondered, does average amateur photography become aerobic, the more weight you add to yourself?

Yes. The gear was heavy. Similar loads have unbalanced and crashed commercial airliners. (Plus, nobody ever survived an airliner crash like that). But Crumby struggled on, attempting to ignore the searing pain that afflicted his elbow every time he lifted the camera to his eyeball. Dang it, my arm hurts. Dang it, Ah caint get my eye close enough to this dang view finder. Why do I have a Neanderthal brow ridge? Why caint ah have a normal brow ridge like everyone else?

Yes. Crumby often queried the WG concerning this or that affliction, inherited from Crumby’s long gone progenitors. Yea verily while Crumby did thus converse one way with the WG, he also took a picture or two. Here some of those are, all with the flash.

pearl crescent (Phyciodes tharos) - There is a rumor going around that flash may permanently damage the eyes of butterflies. That, if true, is bad. Crumby would need to stop using flash on his little friends.




All righty. Here is a phaon crescent for comparison. The contrast in the cell color of the median band is what I use to separate this from the pearl crescent. Typically the median band here is almost white, whereas in the pearl crescent it is always more similar in color to the rest of the lighter colored forewing cells. Then there's the relative size of the median cells, they look bigger in the pearl. Also, the hind wing of the pearl is overall more orange, difficult to see in the example photo because so much of the hindwing is covered up. It looks to me like your butterfly is a pearl.




swamp milkweed beetle (Labioderma clavicollis)- Alas, we have no swamp milkweed at the CB. But we do have plenty of Cynanchum. Just as good. Apparently this beetle species exhibits shockingly diverse markings.




familiar bluet (Enagallma civile)- Where’s my toofers?

New Dragonfly (Celithemis eponina) Documented for the CB

Crumby was unhappy. Yes. Crumby was very unhappy because the continued rainy and cloudy conditions kept Crumby inside. Ah caint go out and visit with my little friends, Crumby whined.

No. Crumby knew he couldn’t take pictures in the dark with his Olympus camera. But then Crumby remembered. I have the FL 36 flash here somewhere. I shall dig it up and take pictures of my little friends employing the artificial light of the flash.

Well. It’s a good thing Crumby remembered that flash. He might have totally missed out on the new, documented, dragonfly record for the CB if he had forgotten the dang flash. Turns out, if you take the lens hood off the Sigma 150mm macro, the flash works OK at a reasonable distance from the little friend that’s fixing to get its picture took. What’s a reasonable distance? That may depend on the little friend. If your little friend is like Crumby, a mile might be too close. But most of these bugs can handle a foot from the camera. They are not so high strung as Crumby.

The common name for this species is Halloween Pennant. When Crumby first espied these, there were at least two of them, he thought they were amberwings. But then Crumby says to himself, These are too dern big for amberwings. Thus, thanks to the flash and Crumby’s keen observational skills, skills typical of a Druid Ovate, we have a new record.

You know, we get new documented records at the CB almost every day. But most of the new records are for bugs that nobody much follows. However,everybody follows dragonflies. Hence the big deal.

Sky Watch

As an average amateur astronomer avidly seeking information or entertainment, Crumby’s favorite regular newspaper item or feature is Sky Watch. Sky Watch is a product of the Morrison Planetarium, California Academy of Sciences. Yes. Sky Watch is part of a missionary program spreading enlightenment toward these parts. The Sky Watch article is always located on the last page of the Metro&State section of the paper. It is situated with the rest of the regular environmental information. Typically, the environmental page is the only page (actually it's half a page) of the Falangist Daily that is always worth a looksee.

Today’s Sky Watch is typical for its entertainment or information value. Like: If Earth were a tennis ball, the moon would be a grape 8 feet away.

So if you know that, you can figure out just about anything. Like: If Earth were a golf ball, the moon would be an English pea 2.5 feet away.

Yes. Consider the many possible combinations of sports balls, fruits and vegetables. Yes. There are a great many of a spherical shape. A person could go crazy considering all the potential combos whirling in space. Whoa! Mercy!