What's bugging you?

Another






This one spotted on Phil's car, at work.

Seen Around Town

This mantis was on the rail of the bridge at James River Park's 42nd Street entrance last Sunday.

We spotted this green mantis sunning itself on a rock in the James near Belle Isle today.

This giant caterpillar (about 3 or 4 inches long), and 2 others like it, seemed to be trapped in a rising pool next to some of the structures from the old industries on the Belle Isle. I coaxed it and another one up a stick and put each on a drier spot. When we passed back by, the apparently dead one and this one were gone; I spotted the second that I rescued deep in the leaves on the log where I'd put it. Was floating in the water a feeding strategy, not a sad result of a formerly dry area flooding? (If it doesn't creep you out, click on the picture to make it bigger and you'll see pill bugs and centipedes and other insects that were creeping and swimming about.)

We were glad for the insect life because the birding was a bit dull. Except for the white-eyed vireo.