Unwelcome Visitors

Another cold, wet day, with proper rain, not the usual drizzle. I took my camera out, but all I got was a couple of shots of yesterday’s mantis, now heavily coated in raindrops.

I picked apples in the rain for processing into tasty apple chunks. For this I use the smaller apples. Very few have blemishes, other than a little sunburn. One picked from close to the ground had a big hole in it and when I cut it open a family of earwigs wriggled out! I captured this one with the flash just before it scuttled down the plughole.

I guess I’ve taken earwigs for granted, not really looking closely at them, but when I looked to see their official name I discovered that there are about 20 different species here in New Zealand, and most of them are endemic. However, I think this is the common or European earwig, Forficula auricularia, a female.