People dismiss bugs. This is a fatal mistake. Because without bugs, there’s nothing to eat your bugs.
Pictured above is another of the gajillion damselflies common to Central Texas, the jaunty female Argia apicalis, or blue-fronted dancer. Like most of the damselflies I chase around the Twisty Compound, this one was feasting on gnats galore, a practice I thoroughly endorse.
I’m telling you, if you don’t know already, that the fabulosity of the critters buzzing around within a few yards of your door will freak you out.
Yesterday, for example, I observed a queen paper wasp of the Polistes exclamans clan gnawing on my deck railing. She wasn’t doing this just to pass an idle hour of a lazy afternoon. You know those wasp nests? They make’em out of deck railing. And spit. Endless toil.
Hmm. Just found your blog because I was about to post something about polistes exclamans on my own blog (which is an Austin blog– weird), and was searching for the answer to a question that may be a natural history question, or may be a folkloric one.
Alas, your blog did not provide the answer, but I like what I have read here nevertheless. Will look in again.