Ruby, I am glad I taught you to turn over rocks in the garden looking for creepy crawlies. We have found amazing things together, already. Ants. I cannot comprehend the damage we are doing to their colonies by our frequent intrusion, but the way I see it, I have gone far out of my way to create an ideal landscape for them, and they owe me some entertainment for my daughter. Ants are familiar with the give and take of mutualism, and now I am doing the taking. We have seen beautiful rove beetles in your colonies, two types so dissimilar in appearance that it is only because of years of booklearning that I recognized them. Ruby, I never bothered ants to look for rove beetles before you came along.
We also have an amazing density of millipedes. Curiously, the star performer of our garden fauna, the European earwig, is scarcely extinct locally, after reaching such incredible densities that I was beginning to wonder how this creature came to be so invincible. Much less abundant, but strange and beautiful, are the beetles. I saw a patent leather beetle, in the wild, and alone, looking under a rock, some strange carabids, and a number of beautiful iridescent beetles I cannot currently name.
Soon, Ruby. Scarabs. Soon, fireflies as well. Soon crickets and cicada calls. Soon.
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