What Kind of Bug Is This?

Do you find bugs fascinating?  

Butterflies who dance on the breeze and come in so many designs and colors?

 We planted butterfly bushes to encourage their visits.

Lady Bugs who cover the roses and consume aphids (OK...I don't love aphids, although they are such a beautiful color!)

 Praying Mantis stalking the garden like ancient aliens...

Sow Bugs which were a favorite of my children who loved to pick them up and quietly hold them until they cautiously unrolled.

I especially love the bees who visited my Rosemary bush this spring by the hundreds.  I counted at least seven different varieties of bee on it.  Perhaps because on our very dry mountain side it was the only thing blooming in early April. No photos of them...since I had not yet learned how to operate my new very complicated camera and the images were very blurry.  Here is one taken with my old camera last spring.

 My great nephew, Aiden, loves bugs as well, but being a modern sort of kid, he has created some bugs of his own using watch batteries.

Soldering supervised by Dad

Just like sow bugs they respond defensively to your touch...in this case by lighting up and moving their antennae.  Aren't they clever?  I have ordered one myself.  Aidan will sell them at school in a marketplace designed to teach the kids about free enterprise.  He took out a loan to purchase supplies (in this case the bugs cost $.39 each to make and he is selling them for $2.00.