In Which @Bug_Girl And Her Camera Make Me Smile

Bug Girl hath learned today: it does not take
Too great an effort to earn a hoorah
From me; indeed all it took for to make
My day, to make me smile, to send my jaw
A-plummeting toward my chest was this:
A snapshot from her garden -- but not just
A plain old plant shot, no, for that's to miss
All buttons on my keyboard. No, you must
Provide me with some insect porn if you
Would seek my fond devotion. And, what's more
While a Manduca's always welcome, due
To my weird standards, braconids will score
Much higher on my charts. And here are both
In one shot. Here's to those coccoons' quick growth!

In Which I Ponder Strange Group Behavior And Posit A Possible Cause

We know that parasites can make us dumb:

For instance, snails who host this one flat worm

(Leucochloridium paradoxum)

Grow fat antennae, colorful, that squirm

Just like a caterpillar, so a bird

Will snap it up and thus wind up a host

To yet another cycle in the life

Of this odd creature. Humans, too, can boast

Of something just as strange. We cease our strife

With one another at odd intervals

To chase a black and white ball round a field

Or watch as others do it. How this pulls

Us from our other pleasures just might yield

A scientific paper, someday, fore

Some xenoanthropologists. Oh, score!

Happy Mother's Day -- IN THE WILD!

The insect world has wonders quite beyond
The critters' mere capacity to to make
A person scream or swat or drain a pond
(Their pow'r is real and mighty, no mistake.
Just think of what they make you do outdoors
Or in the kitchen when they land on food).
This video shows how a wasp mom's chores
Get farmed out to a caterpillar. Crude?
Not one bit! Cunning rather is her way:
She lays the eggs inside their squirming meal,
They grow until it's time to chew this prey
Wide open and emerge; then, still at heel
The 'pillar helps them nest and incubate
And guards them like the army guards the state!