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larryhammerThere are two different creatures that locals call "june bugs".
One is a round brown beetle about the size of a US penny, and very nearly as agile. Seriously, for precision maneuvers such as landing on a flat surface, they can be outflown by cicadas. They first appear in mid-June, usually bumbling around under the porch light. By the end of the month, they are All Over, and every time you open the door another gets in the house, where it too fails to circle a lamp, though not for want of trying. When they aren't buzzing interminably, they crawl everywhere, even across the bed if they think there may be more lights on the other side. These are the annoying june bugs.
The other kind is larger, a scarab beetle about an inch long (2–3 cm), iridescent green with gold highlights. A beautiful thing. Not a great flier, what with its size, but a lot better than its brown cousins, and not attracted to lights. It shows up around the start of July, just as you're about to consign all things junebuggy to the Bad Place for all eternity amen. But no, not these -- these, you want to spare. They are spots of bright beauty in the starkness that is Arizona summer. Don't curse them away.
This lesson in wording what you wish for carefully is brought to you by a tall cold glass of iced tea, with condensation on the outside.
---L.
One is a round brown beetle about the size of a US penny, and very nearly as agile. Seriously, for precision maneuvers such as landing on a flat surface, they can be outflown by cicadas. They first appear in mid-June, usually bumbling around under the porch light. By the end of the month, they are All Over, and every time you open the door another gets in the house, where it too fails to circle a lamp, though not for want of trying. When they aren't buzzing interminably, they crawl everywhere, even across the bed if they think there may be more lights on the other side. These are the annoying june bugs.
The other kind is larger, a scarab beetle about an inch long (2–3 cm), iridescent green with gold highlights. A beautiful thing. Not a great flier, what with its size, but a lot better than its brown cousins, and not attracted to lights. It shows up around the start of July, just as you're about to consign all things junebuggy to the Bad Place for all eternity amen. But no, not these -- these, you want to spare. They are spots of bright beauty in the starkness that is Arizona summer. Don't curse them away.
This lesson in wording what you wish for carefully is brought to you by a tall cold glass of iced tea, with condensation on the outside.
---L.
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Date: 16 July 2009 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 July 2009 06:03 pm (UTC)Apparently, the brown ones really are called May beetles and June bugs, the latter along with several other related scarabs.
---L.
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Date: 16 July 2009 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 July 2009 05:59 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 16 July 2009 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 July 2009 09:55 pm (UTC)ETA: "East" being the mid-Atlantic states.
---L.
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Date: 16 July 2009 10:10 pm (UTC)Japanese Beetles were huge, iridescence green bugs that arrived each summer and flew right at your face. I remember them kind of buzzing as they flew as well.
They were stunningly beautiful, with rainbow shimmers running over their green wings as the sun hit them, but I hated those bugs. I can't count how many times I got hit in the face by one of them. They were big enough that it hurt.
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Date: 16 July 2009 11:57 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 16 July 2009 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16 July 2009 09:56 pm (UTC)---L.
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Date: 16 July 2009 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 17 July 2009 12:07 am (UTC)Poking around the 'Net, it looks like there are green scarab beetles about 2–3 cm long most places in the world.
---L.