It's Alive!

Today I unknowingly saved a metallic wood boring beetle. Gary was walking in our yard in the late afternoon and he said a bug had tried to bite him. Later he came in the house and went to the kitchen and said he felt a bug crawling on himself. He quickly removed his shirt and flicked the bug from his back.


About that time I came into the kitchen and saw Gary pulling his shirt off as quick as he could. I asked Gary what he was doing. He said a bug had "attacked" him in the yard and when he came in the kitchen he felt it crawling on his back. I said it probably just accidentally flew into him when he walked by. We looked around and on the kitchen floor we saw a shiny elliptical something which might have been the culprit. I couldn't see any legs and wasn't even sure if the item was a bug or if it was alive.


I got an envelope off the counter and scooped up the item and brought it to eye level to get a closer look. I decided it was an insect, but it felt so light and looked so still I thought it was dead. I took a few photos and bug remained still as an opossum. I decided to carry it outside anyway, just in case. As I was walking to the door with the bug on the envelope, the legs on one side of the bug started to emerge. I yelled out to Gary, "It's alive!", so happily. As I set the envelope down outside the legs on the other side emerged from under it's body and I knew it was probably going to be ok. The bug must have been stunned when Gary flicked it to the floor.

Later I learned more about this insect by doing a search for a "metallic elliptical insect in Florida" which helped me identify the metallic wood boring beetle, or Chalcophora, and wondered which species this is. Later I went outside and saw the beetle was gone. Now I'm wondering if by saving this beetle, I have unwittingly caused our trees harm.


I'm working on another painting in my class which is a giant sequoia tree near a log cabin. I can't get the trunk to look right. I need to add more layers of paint to improve the details. Now that I'm thinking of it, I could have painted a cracker house or a waterway scene of Florida. My mind's eye memories are of California, but I'm now living in Florida. I'll have to remember that next time I try to think of something to paint.

Meanwhile I sold a few more pieces of pottery at the market yesterday, but the crowds were rather sparse. I'm also trying to figure out how to get a pay pal button on my blog buy page. If anyone has any advice on to do that, please let me know, thanks. Oh, my tip of the day is craigslist has a free category, you never know what you'll find there. Today I saw an ad for free church pews, free cans, free exercycle, and so on. There was an ad for free block so we could finish off our garden plot, but they were already gone.