One balmy day during the summer of 2014, my sister and I found a deceased cicada. We deposited it in a Styrofoam container. Then we gifted it with an air freshener, a mothball. After performing...
Insects & Arachnids
Creek-bottom Treasures
“¿Listo? Let’s go!” we shouted, heading up a sloping Indian pathway, under a cool canopy of Mexican pines. Binoculars, candy bars, and water canteens swung from our packs and filled our pockets. The...
Hickory Mystery
“Where’s Sparkie?” “She’s over there on that knoll. You don’t have to worry about her. She knows this woods better than we.” Hickory tree. Photo © Stephanie Nicole Castle/Dreamstime.com. “Look at...
Mrs. Bumble
One hazy April day I went to our garden looking for worms for a tiger salamander we had found the previous fall. As I dug my shovel into the black soil, a yellow object popped out of the ground....
Mr. Worm
Cecropia caterpillar. Photo © Kcmatt/Dreamstime.com. The rains had been abundant, the heat even more so. Together, the two had made the hum of the lawn mower as familiar as the droning cicadas...
Mailbox April 2021: Carpenter Bee versus Bumblebee
Unscramble the Vireos
