Re: Bugs 'N Such...But NOT Parasites!

I have not collected insect carcasses per se, but I find them quite interesting. I do have half a butterfly body tucked away in a cup for later artistic exploits - I would like to do a painting and use it as a model.

I don't have any COOL stories that match those in this thread thus far, but I did see a COOL carcass this summer. It was outside on our sidewalk, a cicada, it must have died while it was trying to molt. It was the craziest thing, the new and the old body, in the process of molting but not quite seperated. The tail end was out, but the head was only partially 'birthed'. Therefore the cicada seemed to have a double head... the eyes were what was so intiguing. So, being the curious type, I had to pick it up by the wing to see exactly what it was. Then I had to show it to my boyfriend and to my roommate. They of course were not so enthralled by my discovery and responded with phrases like 'sick,' 'gross,' & 'get that thing away from me'.

Ahhh, I would have loved to have saved it. But, as nobody else seems too fond of things like these, I just returned it to the outdooors.

On a side note, a while back there was a dead bird outside the apartment complex we used to live in. I got a couple feet away and was studying the body when my boyfriend came up and got kind of paranoid... WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I tried to explain, but he just didn't get it. I guess I just appreciate the possibility of studying the structure of these creatures when the opportunity presents itself. While they are living and moving it is not quite so easy.