whirligigs in autumn

 

whirligig beetles

slowly trace a cool morning

leisurely chaos

 

 

the threat of a bombardier beetle

 

with abdomen in the air

ready to spray

keep poking, i dare you

 

(by julia mlynarek)

 

kafertannenbaum

 

what if on a warm winter day a thousand brightly coloured beetles

crawled up through the snow and up a fir tree to sit in the sun on its branches

while the fireflies flashed on and off?

 

view from the herbarium

 

six-legged marauders!

dermestids transforming fluffy thistle heads into arrays of frass

requiem for a Cirsium specimen

 

(by marcia waterway)

 

firefly at night

 

lights flashing

morse code of life

fly firefly

 

(by julia mlynarek)

walking is hard

 

left front right mid left rear pause

right front left mid right rear pause

left front right mid left rear pause

 

worlds in an acorn

 

inside the shell and under the cap lives the hint of an oak tree

or sometimes weevils grazing on the soft insides

and sometimes an entire colony of tiny ants

 

weevils

 

colored like the earth

moving slowly on the ground

no more flight for them

 

(by julia mlynarek)

june beetle

 

up from the darkness

bumbling fliers in the night

drums on the window

 

death glow

 

i watched a spider

kill a firefly in the dark

as the light faded