They are tiny, but they are tough!
I captured this amazing specimen a little less than a year ago. I think it may be a horsefly? In this photo the abdomen looks like it’s four inches long. In reality that part of its body was probably only a little over an inch.
This scary critter is a harmless leopard moth. Up close they look quite bellicose, but they’d never hurt a fly!
I have an interesting yellow jacket story. I had an aunt and uncle of blessed memory, who had a lakefront cabin on Lake Martin in Alabama. My uncle was mowing the grass when he accidentally pushed the mower over a yellow jacket nest on the ground. He was immediately enveloped into a virulent cloud of angry hornets. He wasn’t wearing a hat to protect his head from the fury he’d just unleashed. We had to ice his poor head for a couple of days until the swelling went down. After we’d cleaned him up, he was totally bald and the hair never grew back again. I guess when it comes to human skin, yellow jackets pursue a scorched Earth policy!
