She's a Beaut

What a terrific visit we had over the last month with our kin in Canada! I collected some fun animal stories for the blog, too. : -)

So the etsy shop is open for business and i'm back in the workshop creating pretty glass beads. Stop on by and see what's new.

I'm an entomologist in one of my personas, and here's a picture of a cool critter that we collected last night in our New Mexico neighborhood. Littleknown fact: beetles are the dominant form of life on earth. One of every five living species is a beetle, and one fourth of all animals in a beetle. The Order Coleoptera (beetles) is the largest order in the Animal Kingdom, containing a third of all insect species.

This particular beetle is called the Palo Verde Borer (Derobrachus geminatus). Some sources site this species as reaching 6-8 inches, but i'll have to see that to believe it. This female is therefore a wheenie at 3.5 inches but it's the largest i've seen. Around here it is a pest of elm trees. The larvae, which must get enormous, feed on the roots of the tree for a couple of years and then dig a tunnel up to the surface and emerge to mate in late July.