"I desperately want to know what Strongbad eats... he's digging in the sand looking hungry... I think he might just be a touch stupid..." DensityMan thought aloud.
"I drop shrimp pellets at him and he walks past them... pods crawl on his shell... he's gotta be getting the energy to haul that rock around from somewhere... I just want to know where," stated to an interested friend.
So that's what I was doing, just wondering things out loud to a friend in chat when
BAM!...
Tim scared the $#!+ out of me!!!
He's up WAY past his bedtime and while I was staring at Strongbad he popped out of a hole I've never seen him use before, directly above SB. He grabbed a cracked apart nassarius shell (an 1/8 of an inch away from a perfectly good shrimp pellet) and ducked back down the hole. Its just testament to how 'big' he's gotten lately (relatively speaking of course - in the past month he's eaten approximately 2 dozen small blue-legs and at least 2 cerith snails).
So I figure he's decorating a new lair and needed the half-shell for a wall.
It does tick me off a little that he'll come out like that when he knows I don't have the camera ready. So I get the camera and wait to take a truly stunning picture and as soon as I get the camera ready, he pulls a Brando...
NOW I understand why Tim is still up...
While I'm staring at this 'new' home I notice him back at the old digs. He'd made his old apartment large enough to house him again, but in doing so his old 'door' is too small... So he's rummaging around the tank looking for a new door, big enough to close the entrance, but small enough to take inside...
This is freaking hilarious... I only wish I could catch this on film... but all he's doing is rotating pieces of shells and rubble in his door
Meanwhile the emerald crab is laughing at Tim (a mere 3 inches away).
Since I can't capture a decent shot of Tim to save your reading experience I'll post links to a few shots I was able to take clearly. Here are some images of the coolest bug on the planet...
the Preying Mantis!
1.) on leaf -
http://www.densityman.com/images/sho...04/on_leaf.jpg
2.) crawling up -
http://www.densityman.com/images/sho...rawling_up.jpg
3.) a little perspective -
http://www.densityman.com/images/sho...erspective.jpg
4.) so small -
http://www.densityman.com/images/sho...4/so_small.jpg
Found it on the windshield as I was running errands today... it's no longer than a half-inch... pulled over and contained it. Then released it into the garden for pest control!
We had a 7inch mantis make it into the house last summer... cats were having canniption-fits trying to 'hunt' it while I was trying to save it.
Anyway... Tim's ticked off (because he still can't find a door or because I'm talking about something besides him), gotta go...
