So, here I am in South Carolina, and let me tell you, we're not in Idaho anymore. Or Kansas, either, for that matter. I walk out my front door and am enveloped in moisture. Occasionally it rains and often it's overcast, but it doesn't make much difference whether the sky is cloudy or clear, because even on clear days you can only see so far before the humidity fuzzes out the view.
However, all this heat and humidity is good for something: bugs! The insects here are bigger and more colorful than most anything we have at home. I thought they were so neat, I went and looked up the ones I saw. Some of the links below take you to pictures from Clemson's entomology department website.
This summer, I saw a bunch of what looked like oversized wasps hanging around the math building. These things were big, probably around an inch long. Turns out they're "Cicada killers".
I've noticed very attractive little green beetles, appropriately called Green June Beetles. The picture doesn't really convey what lovely irridescent colors these guys have - green on the shell and coppery around the head.
One night as I was walking home, I saw one of these gorgeous Giant Leopard Moths fluttering on the sidewalk between a street lamp. Isn't it beautiful? I'm used to looking a pictures of such large, dramatic insects and thinking they're only found in other countries. But look what we have right here!
Also walking down the sidewalk, I spotted what looked like a huge black ant with furry red spots on it. I finally figured out that it's a "Velvet Ant", which is in fact not an ant at all but a wingless wasp. It's quite a striking bug.
Y'all ever hear of a "Palmetto Bug"? Think cockroach. BIG cockroach, say two inches long. With WINGS. They euphemistically call them Palmetto Bugs here, although they're actually just a larger variant of the "American" Cockroach (which came from Africa). See more info here (Note: not for the buggily squeamish). These guys go skittering around all the sidewalks at night. Emph.
Finally, I was very excited to see something that's not a bug at all, but a lizard, called a Green Anole. Isn't he cute? I was sitting outside eating lunch one day, and one plopped down on the sidewalk directly in front of me, and then slowly crawled up the tree trunk, stopping every few steps to do push-ups and flare his red throat at me. Considering that he presumably spends his entire life in the trees, I don't think he fell. I think he jumped onto the sidewalk on purpose, to tell me that I was sitting under HIS tree. The neat thing about these guys is that I've seen them in pet stores for years - and they grow wild here.
So, it's been pretty neat exploring the wilds of South Carolina - more soon, as I get pictures up that I took of a gorgeous cicada and some very cool fresh-water mussels.
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