The beetles will inherit the earth!

Anyone who knows me will tell you there is a list of critters I am at war with.  Principle amongst them are the possums who want to eat my mangoes - whilst living in the roof!  But I also dislike spiders, mice, roaches, actually,  anything creepy.

So, you are wondering what this has to do with genealogy?  Well, it is actually the lack of that this is about.  In other words, why I did none yesterday.  I work on my family history in my study, which used to be my whole kitchen before we extended the house, and its quite small.  I can fit a bit into it though, mainly a wine rack, a bedside set of draws, and of course the computer and its additional stuff.

My husband left to go to the bread shop, and I decided to sit in the study and do some research.  All good so far.  Then I heard, scratch, scratch, paper russle, crunch crunch.  Now most critters will go away at the slightest noise.  Not this one.  I stomped around, and it seemed to stop.  Good I thought.  No.  I sat down, it started again.  Freaked me out!  I ran out of the room, closed the door and waited for my husband to come home.

In the meantime, No1 son arrived, then No 1 husband.

Here I am, telling them there is a creature in the room.  They did not believe me.  So, I sat down to do some research again.  And the noise started again.  So I called them in, made them sit quietly and waited.

Again, the noise.  I ran out of the room, they searched, listened, waited.  Well, it turned out to be a little black beetle that was stuck in a bag I had put my niece's present in.  Tiny little thing that would do no-one any harm.  It is now crawling up the mango tree, probably to discuss things with the possums!

Much laughter was had by all, but I leave the last word to an Italian author:

“After the planet becomes theirs, many millions of years will have to pass before a beetle particularly loved by God, at the end of its calculations will find written on a sheet of paper in letters of fire that energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. The new kings of the world will live tranquilly for a long time, confining themselves to devouring each other and being parasites among each other on a cottage industry scale.”

Here is a picture of the beetle:
big black beetle - Harpalus

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