That’s two rabbits in Japanese.  Or pretty close, anyway. I learned it from an old Japanese draftsman who worked with me in Honolulu.

Long story … but I found out in the course of our friendship that the Japanese do not pluralize by adding an ‘s’.  They are very precise.  Specific in the numbers.  Not just rabbits, but two rabbits or four rabbits.  And of course, two rabbits will make four rabbits (and more).

I have been watching two rabbits at play in the early evenings, hopping around in the tall grass of an all-but-abandoned house near me.  Each time I see them, I remember with great fondness the kindly Japanese man who touched my life in Hawaii.

Marching off to War

These small bugs appeared on a lawn chair cushion that’s on a deck out in my woods.  Marching busily along in this little bunch.  Spooky.  I immediately got a magnifying glass to count the legs and see if they were baby spiders; fortunately, I found six legs (each) and two antennae.

Now, my friend, Dr. Larry Emerson of Dewberry Farm, is actually a Bug Doctor.  So I sent him a nice blow up image of these little fellars for identification.  Of some concern to me was that they looked remarkably like Deer Ticks, which carry Lyme Disease.  Yikes!

If I only had the courage, I’d print the whole of Larry’s analysis of these bugs here.  Totally hysterical!  Completely irreverant!

These babies are Wheel Bugs!  They have three distinct phases or “costumes”, growing into a craigy looking woodsie bug that matches tree bark.  Read about ‘em in Wikipedia!

Wheel bug nymphs on the move