Hiding from the rain

Hard choosing which creature to blip today. Both bumble bees and earwigs were using the dahlia patch to shelter in. In the end I've gone with the earwig purely on the basis that I've not blipped one before.

I really dislike these things. I remember someone telling me, when I was about 5, that if they got in my ears they'd eat my brains (an adult who should have known better than to scare a kid like that). Of course as an adult I know this to be a blatant untruth but... the power of suggestion and all that, they've given me the creeps my whole life.

This one had sandwiched himself between two petals of a dahlia so was seriously hard to get a decent shot of him - the petals explain the overall pink glow. But before he managed to get in there he had obviously been caught in the rain - you can see a tiny droplet on his back leg and a slightly larger one on his abdomen.

It fascinates me with these chaps that when you see them they seem to have a hard shell yet whenever I've attempted to photograph them they seem to be almost opaque. I know they're not but there's something about their makeup that reflects light some how and makes them almost translucent. The detail of their antennae fascinates me too - that you can see each little section. Much more interesting and clearer in large

Because I came close to blipping Mr Bumble I've put him into my blipfolio - check out how much pollen he's wearing.