Joy! I found another ironclad beetle! Alive! It was near the house, which is not a healthy place for insects, so I picked it up and relocated it out to some rotting wood at the edge of the meadow. It actually walked across my hand to move onto the wood, which was a cool experience. These guys are adept at playing dead, and to see it moving was very exciting. (Obviously.) This is the fifth beetle I’ve seen in the three years we’ve lived here.

On my walk I heard a crashing and thrashing in the woods, as if a massive beast was tearing through the undergrowth. Nope. Just an armadillo. They are definitely not quiet beasties, but I guess when you come fully armored, stealth is not an option. I paralleled him on his (her?) morning snack snuffle, then continued on my way.

I have seen reference to abundant white deposits on plants in a couple Texas blogs I follow. They seem to be appearing in greater number this summer. One said it was mealy bugs. Another delved a little deeper and with the help of iNaturalist identified them as Citrus Flatid Planthopper larva. (Her blog is here). She had a video of the planthopper moving away from its wooly nest, then going back. So I had to go prod and the ones in our yard to see if there were critters. Yup! Same behavior too, moves away from contact, but then eases back into the cottony camouflage.

It seems that it is the year of the pill bug. Rollie pollies are everywhere. Well, OK, everywhere that is outside and slightly moist and dark. So many more, though, than we’ve witnesses here before. We even found one that had a different colored front and back. I couldn’t find any studies or speculation on why it is two colors, but did find other photos of the same phenomena. Interestingly, the head is not always the lighter color. Sorry the photo is slightly blurry, by the time I zoomed in to check the photo, the land crustacean had scurried off to hide. There were other creatures in the decaying branch to catalog as well; a wolf spider with an eggs sac, several grubs, and a millipede.