Chores at Angelkeep necessitated nearly a daily trip outside to feed some form of wild critter. With numerous bird feeders on two sides of the house, chances remained high that at least one needed refilled. Human food consumption produced “leavings.” Uneaten parts of constant dining produced unwanted things such as melon rinds, peelings, apple cores, and nuts past their sell-by which had gone a smidgen rancid. Burned toast and leftovers growing fuzzy green hair often added to the pot of items the wild animals failed to consider unworthy. Oh contraire, they gobbled them up.
Point being, Angelkeep learned long ago, any trip to the outside must include a camera hanging around the neck. Angelkeep long ago proved to be an all-season everyday photo op. Potentially, half of Angelkeep Journals’ topics resulted due to a sudden appearance of something worthy of a photo. Through flora or fauna alike, the unknown often captured in a picture became a revelation and new knowledge worthy of sharing.
What the eye imagined seeing often proved to be something else, once photos were downloaded to a computer and the image enlarged to screen size. Zoom was a magical invention.
The example of Angelkeep’s supply of carpenter and bumble bees proved the point. As they zipped around playing pollinator, the naked eye (at least the poor eyes of an aging columnist) failed to depict one from the other. Their size, color, markings, and activity appeared similar around flowers.
Carpenter bees had a hard beetle-like abdomen as compared to a bumble’s hairy derriere. Both might have a spot of black on the back of the thorax. Of course all insects have the three body parts, and these two look-alikes display similar heads. Each have wings and the six legs necessary for qualification as an insect. Angelkeep as an insect layman, not an entomologist, often needed a photo to study for identification.
Why wasn’t an insect scientist called an insectologist rather than entomologist? Over 1,300,000 insects have been described scientifically making up two-thirds of all known species. That’s foundation for a lot of Angelkeep Journals’ columns.
Purdue entomologists helped set Angelkeep straight on another set of copy-cat insects. Sweat bees and hover flies appear similar in many ways. Both enjoyed a bit of human sweat, thusly occupied some arm space on a hot work day in the garden and flower beds. Fortunately both were harmless.
How did they differ? One was a bee, one a fly. Bees flew with four wings, a fly managed the task with but two wings. Color, size, markings, and other insect similarities could even make one of these sweat-lovers appear suddenly as though it was a yellow jacket. That insect could harm, as Angelkeep had learned on too many occasions.
Angelkeep’s rule of thumb concerning visiting wildlife, for both the cuties and the baddies, was to let live and observe from afar. Zoom on a camera allowed the close inspection. In some cases it resulted in new discoveries.
Thus it was with the hover fly, previously erroneously referred to as a sweat bee prior to getting some new entomology education from the good old Boiler House.
Viceroy and monarch butterflies became another variety of insect nearly impossible to view close enough in the field to identify the difference. Angelkeep long age stopped caring which showed up for a visit as long as either chose to dance among Angelkeep flowers. Unfortunately sightings got fewer and fewer every year. New Angelkeep monarch photos are on the local endangered list.
August was always a great month to circle Angelpond with a camera searching for an unknown insect. Once summer’s gone and autumn turns to winter those unknowns could be researched. The potential reward of learning a new thing in nature had great odds. Well over a million insects have yet to be photographed.
Didn’t God do a magnificent job in creating insect varieties back in the day? The Genesis era. God certainly knew when He made such diversity of bugs that He also created entomology, but eons ahead of its time.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”