Thursday, May 24, 2012

Promise not to bite



There are so many joys of beachside living, and one of them isn't the sand fly.


To tell the truth, I'm not actually certain this is a sand fly
but we are staying across the road from a beach and there
are about  20 of these little people clinging to the sliding
screen door of our apartment right now, hoping to get in,
so I suspect they are sand flies. I've never been so close to
one, apart from when I've been bitten by one. Tip: click
on the photo and it will come up bigger, hopefully.


I constantly amaze myself with my capacity for foolishness, despite my good education and barely deserved reputation for common sense, but there's no way I am so foolish that I will be sliding open those salt-crusted full-height glass doors for a second. I know that if these critters could speak they'd probably say: "Promise not to bite, mister" but I don't trust them for a moment. They're photo fodder, blog fodder but I'm not going to be their fodder!



2 comments:

Lanie said...

Mmmm..I wouldn't trust it either. I'm not an expert, but just looked up my "Field Guide to Insects in Australia' book and it looks like a sand fly. Just discovered that there are 174 species of sand flies (or biting midges). You might even have a few different species on your door.

Jamie said...

Thanks Lanie. I love entomologists – imagine spending hours looking at these little guys through a microscope and saying "Hey everyone, I've found the 175th species of sand fly - woo hoo!" God bless their diligence!