Each Moment, A Discovery



Curious

          Zane discovered a beetle crawling on the floor. He laid down close to it and examined it intently. The creature hobbled because it had lost a leg. Its yellow stripes were designed to mimic the stripes on a wasp so that predators would not know its true identity. To me this was obviously some type of long horned beetle. I researched it later and found it to be the redheaded ash borer. It lays its eggs in the cracks of tree bark, particularly in green ash trees. The larva eats the inner bark and eventually carves tunnels into the tree's core. It is destructive shad trees. However, to my son it was a new creature, flawless and without a history. To him it was nothing but beautiful. It could be dangerous like the wasp it mimics or it could be beneficial like the pollinators on the flowers outside. To a child, all life is as pure and amazing as he!

Redheaded Ash Borer