Bugs and such

Thought at first that it was a cricket, but I was wrong.

Bombus perplexus , known as the confusing, perplexing, or cuckoo bumble bee, is common in my experience to this one small flower garden. So I'll keep photographing it until I get it right or it goes away.

This little guy was about an eighth-inch long. No idea whether it eats plants or other bugs.

You can see its proboscis -- a pretty impressive weapon!

This is how most people would see it. It's worth recognizing -- its bite is plenty painful.

If you look closely under his head, you'll see the long, sharp proboscis folded next to its body. When it finds an insect (or other creature -- big ones have been known to devour small vertebrates) it wants to eat, it stabs the hapless prey with its proboscis, injects a poisonous, painful, and digestive fluid, and then uses it like a straw to suck out the prey's now liquified innards. It is a true bug.

Again, the halteres are visible, the things dangling out from the sides that look like drumsticks.