"Just a-Lookin' Fur a Home."

I'm starting this post Saturday afternoon to reserve this date and title, but will probably add the full essay late tonight or tomorrow. A most interesting article in the March 5, Web Edition of Science News caught my eye, largely due to the great photo above. The author of the article is Susan Milius, and the photographer was Dr. Grzegorz Buczkowski, an entomologist from Purdue U. He graciously gave me permission to use his photo here. Interestingly, the photo as shown here has the acorn lying on its side, which is the way Dr. B. found it. In the Science News article it was rotated 90 degrees to look like the acorn was still on the tree. At any rate, I loved the photo, and it stirred lots of memories that blended into other items I have seen or read recently. Today's title is from the Boll Weevil Song which is probably at least 100 years old, author unknown, and has been altered many times. Most versions emphasize the threat the boll weevil posed to the cotton industry, but my essay will take the side of the insects - the boll weevil lookin' for a home, the ants who've found one in the acorn, and the various wasps and beetles that create or find homes in interesting places. Over 30 years ago, I published a column in a weekly newspaper, Mountain Messenger, titled "Ants, ants, ants." One of my favorite scientists, E. O. Wilson, has spent his life studying the ants of the world. So, I'll have a lot to say about ants. I found a great article in Natural History magazine called "Confessions of a Gall Hunter," by Ron Russo. I also reminisced on my Master's Degree project which involved studying the many different species of insects and other animals that live in the bottoms of very long burrows dug by the Florida Gopher Tortoise. I've also been a life-long practitioner of tipping over rocks and logs and probing into rotting logs to discover what may be living in these places. So, this potpourri of thoughts, memories, and references will be organized into a coherent essay by some time tomorrow, and, hopefully, will stir you go "lookin' for a home," that is, unusual homes of wild critters in your vicinity.