Bugs, Bugs Everywhere

It's only the beginning. Of summer and BUGS. There are all kinds of bugs here and they all have names. I mean names that people know. In Japanese. I bought a book of bugs and there were over 15 ladybugs, all with different names in Japanese. Bugs and plants also have names in Latin and that is the key to figuring out if they are located in other parts of the world, too. We all use those names to identify them. Unfortunately, the book I bought doesn't have those names. That was an oversight on my part. There was one book at the store that included them. I'll have to either buy it or look them up on the internet. If you know any of them, let me know.

Have you ever seen anything like these? The first two pictures are of the same bug. I took two pictures to show you how big it was. It was sitting on a raspberry leaf.

Later today, I was in the garden and felt something on my arm. I thought it was a mosquito and was about to swat it. I looked down and it was a teeny, tiny praying mantis jumping around on my arm. I let it jump onto a plant. I'm glad I looked down! He will eat uninvited and undesirable bugs in our garden.

On our way out the other evening, Little Brother and Big Sister found this on the side of the house. They told me that it was one of the most expensive native beetles. This is the season of catching or buying beetles and other bugs. We decided to leave it alone. Little Brother had just bought a male and female Malaysian beetle earlier that day. The male looks a lot like this one. We're going to have even more bugs as the summer months continue.