sign of the times

[Peter Clausen]

I listened to the song on Amazon and the tune is all wrong, but your next theory seems right on the money.

My dad is from South Dakota. He grew up on an Indian reservation (that’s his story, anyway)—cowboy/ranch, small one-street town stock. I’m headed out there in a couple weeks and will follow up on your research with that side of the family. Of course, I think the song was much improved on account of the bug reference . Maybe I'll catch a few junebugs while I'm out there, assuming the world doesn't end between now and then. A couple weekends ago, a Christian friend at work told me that there were many who believed that Jesus would be returning to take believers, that weekend (or something that approximated this). I told him that he better not call in sick on Monday, or I was going to be really confused! That Monday, he was even less thrilled to be at work than usual.

When I think of junebugs, I think of Polyphylla spp., but I know the common name is applied to many diff. species around diff. parts of the country.

Thanks Phil!

 

[massaman]

this is the what I am referring to as june bugs as always called them that!

their flying is annoying as it makes alot of noise and a day before a big storm there was like a minefield of them all over my driveway and trying to walk around them was a pain as they stuck to my clothes and stuff!

 

[guapoalto049]

I get a bunch of those every year around my house, never knew they were called June bugs! Regardless, my shield likes them

 

[Peter Clausen]

Yes, Massaman, those are junebugs! We call them May beetles out here (and when I say we, I mean the 10 people in Oregon that give a rip), but the name is interchangeable with junebugs. The genus us Phyllophaga, assuming I'm seeing your bug correctly.

 

[PhilinYuma]

It's interesting that you got "swarmed", Paul, after a heavy rain storm. These beetles, and a lot of others, overwinter underground and the rain must have made the soil moist enough to cue them to emerge.

Here in Yuma we have "green junebugs" which are really fig eating beetles, Cotis mutabilis. They pupate in decaying vegetation like compost heaps and I remember that there was a "plague" of them in San Diego when I lived there. They flew en masse and died en masse, often upside down where their bellies sparkled like emeralds. A sight to remember. This thread is much more fun since it got back to insects!

 

[Ricardo]

If by "world" you mean a planet habitable by man, I agree with you, but planet Earth won't miss mankind; it will hardly notice that we have gone. We are taught from early childhood that man is the summit of "creation" by virtue of his intelligence, but I wonder if intelligence as ratiocination and advanced tool using capability wasn't just a regrettable misstep that will be easily corrected with our extinction..

And since I'm getting preachy, here, let me add that the claims that though we hear constantly about how "we" discovered atomic power, got to the moon, plumbed the oceans' depths, and on and on, it's worth remembering that "we" did not. That was done by men who are frequently underpaid and who are regarded contemptuously as nerds and egg heads. Most of us watch silly shows like Are you smarter than a fifth grader? (is that celebration of ignorance still on?) and spend our time watching sports and reality shows on TV, I don't have TV, but Iwatch mantids sitting motionless in a cage. Still, they are cute, aren't they?

You're a good man phil and very wise! And I think interacting with the environment is better then watching shows which as you said " celebrate ignorance ".

And Yes I understand it will be a long long time before earth itself is destroyed. The human race however is much more likely to perish rather quickly