Dixie Quiz

Since I am interested in regionalisms, I did end up taking the Dixie/Yankee quiz, although I find it problematic to divide American English that neatly (what about Boont?). I came up with 55% Dixie, no doubt due to the huge influence of Oakies and Arkies in California's Central Valley. I knew kids who never left the state and sounded like they were from Oklahoma (and this is two or three generations removed from the Dust Bowl refugees).

The quiz linked to an interesting site on the antlion, which is a fascinating creature. As I mentioned in a comments box on another blog, when I was a demented ten year old (as opposed to now, when I am a demented thirty-two year old), I used to stage gladiator fights between different species of ants in antlion dimples. A red ant would fight a black ant and then, POOF! The antlion would devour one or both.

Sick, I know, but they don't really have much of a nervous system. And I did learn more about the habits of the order hymenoptera than most of my peers. I am still fascinated by the habits of bees, wasps, and ants. I have built ant farms and investigated wasp nests (be careful when doing this), and am amazed by the whole thing.

Here in California we are facing a twofold invasion: fire ants and killer bees. The killer bees will probably be pretty docile by the time they get here, due to breeding with honey bees. I have heard horror stories about fire ants, but am still curious about them. The scariest ants I have encountered so far were the monsters in the Amazon basin. Those suckers are big, black and beautiful. I can watch them all day.

Of course Amalia's interests in instecta are in butterflies and ladybugs. Can't say I blame her. They are lovely creatures. We are fortunate to live very close to one of the monarch butterfly wintering sites. If you ever have a chance to see one of these places, by all means do so. Monarchs are gorgeous. Around here their only rival in splendor (at least in the order lepidoptera) are the swallowtail butterflies.

Some day I hope that she will take after me and find cockroaches some of the most interesting insects around, but I can wait. I understand that to a two and a half year old color is everything, and cockroaches are fairly bland compared to her favorites. Still, I find the site of a Madagascar cockroach one of the most breathtaking things known to man. They are the heavy cavalry of the insect world, looking like tiny Crusaders off to retake the East from the insectoid equivalant of Mohammedans (hmmm. What would that be?). Think about that image for awhile. I bet that Pixar never uses it. Too bad.

I like most insects, but I am not crazy about the order diptera. Two wings is just not enough, and they also are the disease vectors around here. I have posted before on my mourning of the loss of DDT in our arsenal against diptera, something I think about in late summer when I am at the bullfights in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley, being eaten alive by swarms of nasty little buzzing things. I predict that a massive outbreak of West Nile Virus changes a lot of folks' notions of DDT.