Wildlife Wednesday - more bugs

I was visiting my sister and her family on the weekend and I went out to play touch footy with my nephew...and had to put the game on hold to get my camera for Wildlife Wednesday - there was a bug!

Bug with a side order of copulating soldier beetles

Actually, their whole backyard was swarming with soldier beetles - in the lawn, on the plants, on the soccer goals we used as the try line. And on those soccer goals were hundreds of copulating soldier beetles...but they weren't what stopped the footy game. It was this bug that only its mother could love!

View of the bug from above

It's like a cross between a crusader bug, a stink bug, and a weevil. I'd never seen one before but my sister said they often had them - not that the kids had seen one either. And those kids were fascinated while I was...then Miss 3 threw a hissy fit when the photos were over and a soldier beetle happened to land on her! Lucky Mr 7 was more into touch footy than beetle/bug-panic!

So one of my insect books has a bug that's predatory and sucks the body fluids from a moth larva (Oechalia schellenbergii - Pentatomidae - Hermiptera) which looks somewhat similar. Oh...but it's not that. Drat!

and from the side

It could be an Assassin Bug (check it out here). The Australian Museum site doesn't have a picture,but they have a termite assassin bug, which is a predator that eats termites. I wonder if this guy has adapted to the tasty joy of soldier beetles?

Okay, so I can't find an exact match that I'm happy with - so situation normal here! I'll temporarily call him an assassin bug and see if I stumble across something better!

If you know what it is, then please let me know!

PS I lost the touchy footy by a long way!

Sunday Story - in print

at QBD Bookshop

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Last weekend we went up to the footy but we made a detour to some bookshops so I could find the Housewives and have a photo with them :)

I know, it's kind of silly, but I was in a book on a real shelf for the first time.

at Target

I was one of eleven in the book.

I can't wait until it's my very own book - I guess that'll be a while yet! LOL

The Housewives are at Target, Big W, K-mart, and selected bookshops. The bookshop had it for $15.99 and Target for $10. But I had to hunt around for it. My local shops didn't stock it (we're a prudish town!)

Phallic Friday - latex, rubber, leather

This week's fetish is material - latex, rubber and leather. I have to admit that I don't understand this fetish much at all...but I can appreciate people who do love their 'fabrics'.

There are online stores set up to provide for your every need, like this one, The Latex Store. There are women's and men's clothing as well as the stuff you associate with fetishes or kinks, like hoods, masks, sex toys, bondage gear, extreme kinky sex (which has some total coverage gear) and heavy weight latex.

Some of the gear looks like regular clothes - like leggings, skirts, tops - so you can experience your fetish without drawing attention to it. Others are the stereotypical latex wear of masks, bondage gear, sexy outfits for Dommes or Doms, and for male and female subs.

Sax Fetish is an Aussie store supplying all your leather fetish needs. Again, regular clothing as well as kinky wear. It even has Marsupial Bondage Toys, which are much tamer than I imagined! They're stuffed toys dressed in bondage gear - you know, suitable for your overseas guests :)

I think it's the clothing aspect I don't understand about this fetish. I'm too much into flesh to bother about clothes, so to dress in this sort of gear, in my mind, is a wasted effort! But if you're prolonging sex, and aiming for a steamy night of role play or D/s play or just spicing things up, then yes, I totally get that these can be a huge turn on.

So, are you into a fabric fetish? And which is your choice?

Wildlife Wednesday - poor little bugs

Soldier Beetles

I found these poor little bugs washed up on a beach this past weekend - not my beach, but a nearby one. I took a photo of them because they wash up in their hundreds and it's quite amazing how many there are. These were marking the high water line.

I remembered doing a post on them and I thought it was last year, but it was 2 years ago (how quickly the years pass). You can find it here.

My sister was visiting at the time and we found they were Soldier Beetles, often called Plague Soldier Beetles, and they appear in vast numbers when conditions are right.

I haven't seen too many down my way yet, so maybe our conditions haven't been quite right yet.