Over-reacted

 I lined up some photos I took last Friday while hanging out in the parking lot by the South Park trail head.  After a little editing,  I was planning to show first some photos of Spanish Clover, but a more interesting encounter with nature occurred while I was washing dishes.  I felt something crawling in my hair, and given the hot afternoon and the flowers blooming in my front yard, I was a little worried about Yellow Jackets.  I quickly brushed the critter out of my hair and onto the tile countertop (above).  It was wet, and I suppose a little soapy, so it perished quickly.  I gave it one last chance to survive by carefully transferring it to a cutting board that I thought might absorb some of the water.

I was too late.  My swipe was probably a little too violent as well as laden with dish soap.  The critter in question is a Snake Fly. When these guys are alive (actually, this one is a female), they carry their heads high on top of a longish thorax and resemble cobras.  I think they can bite, since they are predators, but they've never bitten me.  They're in the insect group known as Neuroptera and are related to many other insects generally known as lacewings. I'll get back to the Spanish Clover in a little while.