What bug?
Several days before I got sick in October, I stepped out onto my patio one morning to find this rather elegant and gaudily dressed beetle crawling across. Well, well, I thought, what bug are you? I don't believe we have met before. I snapped his picture and later started researching, trying to learn his name. I knew enough to call him a beetle, but that was able all I knew. But at least that narrowed the field a bit. I finally found him in an old field guide I owned, A Field Guide to the Insects by Borror and White. Turns out my little visitor is a scarab beetle of the family Scarabaeidae , subfamily Scarabaeinae, or dung beetle! Yes, that elegant-looking little beetle makes his living from dung or carrion. The little guy, whose proper scientific name is Phanaeus vindex , is also known as the rainbow scarab, which I like much better than dung beetle so I think that's what I'll call it. The rainbow scarab beetle is resident in the eastern U.S. all the way to the Rocky Moun...