> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.com
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.com]On Behalf Of Amara Graps
> I've been watching flies alot lately.
I loved hearing about your flies, Amara! I'm still smiling, and yes,
Larson's cartoons are great. My teen aged daughter and I both got a good,
healthy laugh at the one with the 2 flies on a date.
A person who enjoys watching insects and other small creatures is rich
indeed. I've read that only a small number of insect species has been ID'd
and classified. Almost every day I see a new one I've never seen before,
some of them VERY strange looking. I should start photographing them.
There's a spider who's lived behind the clock on my wall for several months
now. I don't know what kind she is, but she doesn't match any of the
pictures of extremely poisonous ones, so I keep her around for
entertainment. Rather than one of the beautifully symmetrical webs that
some spiders weave, this one's is sloppy and haphazard in appearance, and
the spider adds a bit on to it every few days. It's beginning to make quite
a mess of my wall. She's shy and hardly ever comes out, so I have to entice
her every now and then by catching a small insect and tossing it into her
web. When she feels the web vibrating, she peeks out from behind the clock
and slowly eases towards the trapped insect. When she reaches her future
meal, she wraps it up into a neat little package--probably she injects some
digestive chemicals into its body at this time. She must come out to have a
leisurely feast at night when she's feels safe from my presence, which
clearly annoys or frightens her. The web now has little empty
insect-wrappers hanging from it like Christmas tree ornaments.
Bonnie
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