Bet that misleading title got your attention eh?
Anyways; I wanted to share this stupid story, something that happened yesterday evening.
For context; the other day when I was in a rush to pick up my son from school, I noticed an odd looking insect on the pavement. It was dead, sadly, but I didn’t get the chance to properly examine it as I was in such a rush.
Luckily on the return home, my son also spotted it & commented on how odd it was. We both had a look & tried to determine exactly what it was. I was trying to see any sort of ‘obvious’ physical traits that would help in explaining what genus it belonged to. It was obviously some sort of large flying insect, due to its wings. At first I thought
‘ok maybe it was just a really fat or bloated brown fly?’
But that made little sense. I noticed what I thought was a shell, but it didn’t really look like any beetle shell I’d seen in this area before.
It really bugged me (ha; pun fully intended) & I planned on looking through my books once I got home.
Of course. I forgot. I always forget.
Just like I forgot to check my books to see what caterpillar it was that me & my two year old found.
. . . .
Ok; I’m actually going to go do that now before I bloody forget again… I’ll be back in a jiffy.
… …
Ok so; the caterpillar wasn’t in my books; so I checked online. It was a buff Ermine moth, which makes sense as I have seen those moths in this area plenty of times (we even had two sitting right outside our front door before)
Anyways, getting back on track here.
Each time I did remember; I was usually too busy to go check my books, so I would mull over it, trying to figure out what the hell genus that tiny corpse belonged to, & certain I had actually seen it before.
I was out walking my dogs with my other half yesterday evening, & the conversation went as follows.
Him (talking away about cars… Again… Of course):-
“We were talking at work about the new Volvo’s that they’re going to be bringing out. Whenever they set them to electric, or hybrid or whatever, & they drive them into the workshop, you can never hear them. So I said it’s a bloody hazard because people won’t hear them coming down the road &~”
*Metaller slowly turns her head. Eyes wide. Looks at him*
Me:- “COCKCHAFER!”
Him:- “…. Wat…?”
Me:- “That dead insect we found on the way home from school! It was a cockchafer! I’m sure of it!”
*checks for images on the internet using her phone*
“Ha! Yes it was! See!”
*shows pictures of the little brown member of the beetle family*
“I can’t wait to tell the kids! They’re going to think it’s hilarious”
& sure enough; they did. Of course, they thought I was joking at first, but I showed them proof that there is, indeed, a beetle called the Cockchafer.
(Also I just discovered that it is a member of the Scarabaeidae family, which would explain it’s size & physical attributes. Sorry I just love reading up on this stuff.)
