Oops!

I forgot yesterday was Wednesday… not so wordless, was it?      

• I also forget to mention yesterday that I had stopped in the Dollar Store this past week.  They were tearing down all the back-to-school stuff and putting up the Christmas merchandise.  I swear, it gets worse and worse every year…

 

• I picked up my truck from the shop today.  If the Check Engine light stays off until Monday, I can get my new inspection sticker.  If it goes back on, then the real fun begins     My prediction:  the light will go back on either tomorrow on my way home from work or Sunday on my way home from church.  We’ll see…

 

• A lady at work brought in a picture of an insect that she had in her yard that she wanted help identifying.  It looked like this:

Pretty distinctive, isn’t it?  The only difference was that bug in her picture didn’t have wings, but still, pretty hard to mix up with something else…

I have a bunch of the Peterson Field Guides, which I use a lot and for the most part, I really love the series.  Except for the insect book.  I haven’t found it to be very useful most times I try to use it.  This wasp – or it’s entire family – wasn’t even mentioned, which is very frustrating.  It’s hard to find something that isn’t there! 

Many entries that are there aren’t very helpful, like this example:

“Some stink bugs are rather plain-colored, brownish or grayish, but many are brightly colored.  Although most of them are plant feeders, some are predaceous.”

Gee, that really narrows things down, doesn’t it?

Don’t get me wrong, I do love the Peterson books – I have a whole bookshelf full of them, most of them very well-worn – I just don’t recommend the insect book!

Oh – BTW, the insect is an Ichneumon wasp, which is a wood boring wasp.  Here’s a video of a live one – sound and everything!  She’s depositing her eggs, but the focus is kind of lost at the end…