The appeal of insects

I recently wrote a column about the influence an entomologist can have on one’s appreciation for insects. The diversity of insect life is truly amazing and tends to get under your skin once you relearn how to notice it (kids notice bugs all the time).

Here is some proof. Photographs of insects have appeared in several of my blog posts from this year:

Five awesome things from this evening’s bluff hike

Views from a hike

A visit to Buffalo Creek Wildlife Management Area

A visit to one of the newer public lands in western Nebraska

And here are some photographs from this year that haven’t made it into my blog:

Green butterfly, April 23, Skaftö Island, Sweden

Honeybee, April 25, Kristianstad, Sweden

Stink bug, April 27, Alnarp, Sweden

13-year periodical cicada, June 5, Harrisburg, Illinois

Weevil, June 15, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Striped June beetle, July 10, Wildcat Hills Nature Center

Milkweed beetle, July 23, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Green moth, July 24, Highway 26 rest stop in Wyoming

Antlion, July 24, Pathfinder Dam, Wyoming

Cactus bug instars, July 24, Pathfinder Dam, Wyoming

Bee fly, July 31, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Ambush bug, July 31, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Black wasp, July 31, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Grasshopper, July 31, Scotts Bluff National Monument

Skipper butterflies, July 31, Scotts Bluff National Monument

And the source of my interest in insects, the Bugman himself, with his camera (I have lots of photos like this):

In Wyoming

In Sweden

Gotta love insects. (Except bedbugs. And mosquitoes. And anything else that might suck my blood, bite me, or make me itch.) Gotta love pretty, harmless insects.

Copyright 2011 by Katie Bradshaw