This blogs is ... bugs, birds and beetles. There are always new and interesting things to ponder.

SCALE ... the leg of middle sized grasshopper and a tiny fly. Both can fly.
A female Cardinal munching a red berry.
STRUCTURE ... what survival function is served by separating the wasp's 'thorax' from the rest of its body by a long tube? How does it compensate for the rear end weight when flying? Shouldn't its wings be more centrally located?
'Seek' couldn't identify ... Mother and two teenagers. The young ones were hopping around in the brush. It looks like one has eaten a Harvester given the legs sticking out of its mouth. The mother left and came back with an insect and fed one of the young ones.
DETAIL ... the striking thing about the shed cicada 'skin' is that it includes all the hairs plus the antenna. How does the next nymph stage extract itself out of the 'skin'. There's no way we (humans) could make a mold that would allow extraction with that level of detail.
MUSCLES, JOINTS AND CONTROL ... This insect seems impossible. Like the Harvester, muscle, joint and feedback system to control its legs seems impossible but obviously is accomplished. As I watched it walked across the top of the flower periodically inserting its feeding tube. It seemed to know where it was putting its feet.
SHOULDN'T WORK ... As I was watching another bug, this crab spider came floating by on its web and grabbed a plant stalk. The size of its two pairs of front legs seem totally wrong. The weight distribution wouldn't seem to work. The size of prey its front legs could grasp is far larger than the body/mouth could deal with. The energy required to control the front legs seems way out of proportion to what the body size could supply. ... But there it is. I even saw another one a couple of days later.
WHY THE MASS OF SMALL BEETLES ... The cores of many / lots of the aging compass flowers on the savannah and prairie are covered with these brown beetles. They all had to have hatched somewhere and found their way to these flowers. There are 11 on this flower alone.
One of the above beetles.
WHY FLIES, WHAT ARE THEY EATING ... On these flowers are masses of flies. In this case and on other like flowers there was the liquid like substance they seemed to be feeding on.
WHY EYE COLORING ... This damsel fly's eyes have the apparent line pattern. Others have blue and green. Does the color represent different functional sections of their eyes or is it 'simply' like our eyes that have different iris colors? Since this coloring seems to be part of their eye's vision structure it would seem to have a purpose.
WHY DOESN'T EVOLUTION PROVIDE A PLAN FOR SPIDER WEB EXTRACTION ... This of the long legged flying things (crane fly type) blundered into a spider web. Actually a very sparse, probably old spider web. It was stuck and after some wing flapping appeared to accept its fate or was just worn out. The question results from 1) spiders and their webs have been around for millions of years and 2) insects in general and those with long legs have been around for millions of years. Why haven't insects evolved a built in process to pull their legs free of a spider web? I really can't say that this one didn't escape. I watched it for a few minutes and it quite moving. No spider showed up in that time.

These two bugs are in the family coreidae (https://bugguide.net/node/view/93) which includes many different species. All have similar characteristics. Two of these are: 1) they have scent glands which result in a stink if they are disturbed (or crushed) and 2) they have 'flaps' on their rear legs. As apparent they have some 'interesting' markings. The third photograph shows the 'tongue' tube structure with what appear to be tongue elements coming out.

HAIRS USED FOR COLORATION ... This is a Locust Borer Beetle. Its larva attacks Black Locust trees. It is native and covers most of the US and parts of Canada. An interesting thing is that the black and yellow coloration is the result of like colored hairs. This is not the only beetle which uses hairs to create its color pattern but is certainly on of the most striking.
SURFACE TENSION IS A REMARKABLE PROPERTY OF LIQUIDS ... This is a the flower of a Flowering Spurge which is now blooming on the prairie. A very dewy morning. What keeps the balls of water from rolling off. Is certainly been studied ... and studied. The formation of the sphere is explained but at least a cursory reading didn't say much about what holds it to the surface (I'm sure it's discussed somewhere).
This is what the flower looks like in its early blooming form.