You can be lucky sometimes! I had read about the insects commonly called “mantis-flies” and seen many images of them, but I had never seen a live one in the flesh. We were at dinner with neighbours one night when one landed by my plate of food – no kidding. Pandemonium ensued as I tried to catch it, shouting for a container of some kind. Finally it was corralled and I had one to photograph. Here it is! (below)
Tomato fly
I picked a tomato off the bush the other day and noticed a little hole in it. I cut it open and saw that the contents were looking a bit ordinary, as if it was about to rot. Under higher magnification I could see the culprits – fly larvae – yep, maggots! The image below shows a close-up of one.
Fear and loathing
It happened one day at primary school back in the 1960’s. “It’s biting me, it’s biting me!!” the boy screamed as he sprinted past me. He then collapsed on the ground in flamboyant B-grade movie style, shrieking loudly. I ran up to him and could see the culprit clinging to his leg, a very large but harmless moth which I now know it to be one of the ‘rain moths’ of the family Hepialidae (below).
