About 10 years ago I found a round black beetle about the size of a large pea in my dog's water bowl. I could tell right away it was a scarab. A closer inspection revealed it had an impressive horn on the tip of its nose. Although I wasn't actively collecting, it was impressive, it was dead, I still had the tools and I hated letting it go to waste.

Looking for something to try out my new Canon 6D Mark II in conjunction with my StackRail, I got the little scarab out. It broke in two so I glued it back together. Unfortunately, I didn't have any museum-sanctioned insect repair adhesive so I used some “Head cement” from my dry fly tying kit. It didn't turn out to be the best choice but I did manage to get the little critter repaired, positioned and, 238 images later, processed into one image.

Identification has been challenging so far. It might be a burrowing scarab. While seldom seen, they are more common than one might think since they don't usually come out into the world of humans and deadly dog bowls.

A walk along the Van Duzen River today yielded another uncommonly seen critter, a San Francisco lacewing (Nothochrysa californica), which is considered an endangered species. As rare as it is, I can't find any references as to its life history. Likely as not, like their green and brown cousins, they are predators of tiny insects like aphids.

To round out my day, I saw a favorite I've been expecting: a tiny fairy moth. They are the only species of moth hereabouts with such luxuriously long antennae. We can usually expect to see them for a couple of weeks at this time of year.