That has changed.
Sunday morning, back in Strathcona, I noticed another bug on the floor under my daughter's window. I brushed it into a plastic bag, bundled it into my backpack and brought it home. I dropped it into the first bug's new home, with a handy pine cone for a perch.
"Aha! A companion! A new best friend!"
Immediate result; a whole lot of grooming going on. Every time I looked, one or the other beetle was busy scrubbing hands, scraping back legs, or smoothing its forewings (elytra). Antennae waved wildly, capturing data. Bug # 2 roamed about. By Monday evening, # 1 was following suit.
These are interesting bugs; intelligent, as bugs go, brave and inquisitive. They seem to have no fear of my camera lens, a bare centimetre away from their faces. They neither run away nor play dead, but instead wave their antennae at the camera; "Hi, all my fans!" One kept following the lens around, as I tried to position it where the light was good.
They wear a brick-red formal jacket trimmed with a large garnet, opening to reveal an inset of luxurious chocolate-brown silk, a red and black shirt-front with checkered trim and a thin, red tie.
Jacket. (Hemelytra or front wings)
Shirt-front, with tie. (Mouth parts, actually.)
And around the shoulders, they wear a feathery collar, with jester's corners and cream lace inserts:
"Handsome, aren't I?"
By Monday night, both bugs were alert and busy; they kept opening and closing their wings, and occasionally attempting a short flight. I caught a glimpse of a back, yellow and black, like a wasp.
It took a while, but I got a photo:
Three layers: hemelytra (forewings). Gauzy, transparent flight wings underneath. And below that, the upper abdomen.
I don't know how to tell if they are male or female. Or when, or whether they will be interested in breeding if they are opposite sexes. Something to look up. And I'll keep an eye on them for mating and/or fighting.
I'm keeping them both in the plastic container. I don't dare let them go; they, or their young, destroy our evergreens. Nor can I "put them down", not after I've been watching them for a week. So I'll have to provide a home for them, I guess.
I wonder if there are books on the Care and Feeding of Seed Bugs as Pets.
**Corrections made after input from Christopher (see comment #1). Thanks, Christopher!
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