im just a bug

my good friend Pycnogaster cucullata - mouse-sized beast, maker of high-pitched hums, and lumberer extraordinaire - very clearly prefers to hang out hidden in dense, spiky bushes like gorse in my experience. this one, though, was wandering around on fennel for some reason, which is the exact opposite of a dense plant, allowing me to get a pretty good look at him

i considered handling him for better photos, and easily could have, but even small katydids are famously bitey so i didn't really feel like testing my luck against something of such hippopotamus-like proportions

Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata)

A Hellgrammite, the aquatic larva of an Eastern Dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus), family Corydalidae, found in a freshwater creek in Ohio, USA