What the Buggy Hell is This?

You never really sit down and realize how many thousands of strange bugs there are in the world until one of them strolls onto your patio and starts accosting people like he owns the place. This unusually odd looking bug, half beetle, half praying mantis, half cricket marched along the base of the house on the patio yesterday, and nothing seemed to bother him as he investigated his new surroundings. Usually, when you pat the ground near the back end of a bug, he’ll scatter away, but this one had the moxie to turn and charge at my hand!

At first I thought it was a cricket of some kind, but then it looked slightly more evil in appearance than a cute lyrical cricket. For starters, where’s the violin? And this one has these separated buggy eyes that acted independently of each other, and when he was challenged by my patting, some sort of pincher device unfurled on his back and spread out menacingly. I hope that there aren't any more of them out there, as they looked like a vengeful lot, and I can see my house overrun by little beetle whateveryoucallits looking to even the score for the death of their friend.

And he was quick on his feet, like a six-legged Carl Lewis...not quick enough as it seems.

Natalie, at first was apprehensive about going near it, but after I showed her that it wouldn’t hurt her, she was quite enraptured by the little thing…she even gave it some food from Elsa’s bowl. It didn’t eat it, of course, but she was very interested to watch it scamper around the patio... no doubt, running for its life and probably saying to itself: "Why'd I leave the nest during the day? Why? Why?"; that is until Elsa discovered it. She lumbered over to where we were crouching to look at the bug, “Whatcha all lookin at? Oh, hey… Can I eat it?”

And so she did.

So much for the mystery bug.