There is a legend that there is a legend [1] that St. Urho once saved the Finnish grape crop[2] by killing a plague of grasshoppers by either striking them dead or driving them into the sea. He is reputed to have attacked them with his pitchfork while crying out, “”Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen” which translates literally to “Grasshopper, Grasshopper, go from here to the Devil!” (which has essentially the same meaning as “Grasshopper, Grasshopper, go to Hell!).
(image from sainturho.com)
So, since today (March 16) is St. Urho’s Day, I thought it would be a good time to present to you a special bonus post with . . . some drowned grasshoppers![3]
Well, heck. I’ve been posting dragonflies for the last week and a half, I might as well use up my last relevant picture set and make it a full two weeks. On June 19, 2011, we all went fishing at the Otter Lake dam, which is where the lake drains into the Sturgeon River. On the downstream side from the dam (which is only about five feet high), there is a concrete walk that is a really nice fishing spot[1]. So, Sam was sitting on the edge of the concrete, reached down for some reason, and came up with one of these hanging on her sleeve.
I originally thought these were pictures of the same dragonfly as was in Wednesday’s post, but looking more carefully, I realized that (1) they were taken the next day, on July 19, 2010; and (2) this dragonfly had pronounced blue spots running down the abdomen. So, I don’t remember taking these pictures either, but it is clearly a different individual, and probably a different (but closely related) species.
So. While I was preparing Saturday’s photos of a green-striped dragonfly, I stumbled across these pictures, which I had taken a bit over a year earlier (July 18, 2010), and which I had completely forgotten about [1]
I was pushing my bike up the hill on August 31, 2011, when I found this dragonfly alongside the road. The end of August is getting to be late in the season for dragonflies around here, and I thought it was dying. When I picked it up and brought it home, it only moved feebly, with slight vibrations of the wings. So I put it on a sheet of paper for photographs.
And for Leap Day, here’s a little something that leaps!
Sandy found this great big jumping spider in the house on October 13, 2011. It was about a centimeter long, which is unusually large for the local jumping spiders.
Sam found this rather large moth (body about 3 cm long) on the wall of the front porch on August 14, 2011. Its forewings were pretty well camouflaged for resting on bark, making it look kind of nondescript.
This one abruptly appeared in the house on August 14, 2011 (Sandy said she saw it come in through the front door with her, but wasn’t able to catch it). It finally settled down on the kitchen window for photographs.
Sandy found this green caterpillar with brown markings on its back in one of our apple trees on August 10, 2011. Sam called it a “Jaguar Green Caterpillar” and wanted to hold it, so these pictures were taken of the caterpillar in the palm of her hand. It was a little guy, only about 1/2 inch long.
On July 30, 2011, I decided to take down our old, unused satellite dish[1]. So I loosened the mounting bolts on the support bracket, and turned it a bit on the post to loosen it up, and it creaked and vibrated. At which point I heard “bbzzzzZZZZZ” and got popped a couple of times on the arm and back by some very irate wasps that were moving too fast to really see properly. So I made an orderly retreat[2], went in and got my sting-proof shirt[3], and then loosened up the bolts more and finished the job. And then, when I looked inside the LNB[4] support on the satellite dish, this is what I found there:
