Usual activities seem to get pushed aside around Christmas, and my energy for new blog topics fades. Fortunately there is an answer for this, bordering politely on the edge of plagiarism..... borrowing from other more talented sources. Hence, here is today's offering.
First, a favorite blog of mine is the Bug of the Week written by BugLady from the Field Station at the University of Wisconsin. She too has a case of the holiday doldrums but addressed it by re-posting this story of flying spiders found at altitudes as high as 15,000 feet! These are newly hatched spiderlings and they aren't flapping their little legs but rather launching on silken strands that serve as kites.
Let me warn you about time lost following her links. We went "down the rabbit hole" chasing her reference to "Anna Botsford Comstock, and her wonderful Handbook of Nature Study." Google searches, taking us farther and farther away from completing our blog, led to this Wikipedia article on the fascinating Anna Botsford Comstock. Then we found the PDF of the book on line. The book's section on wildflowers, starting on page 486 is a good place to start sampling, but don't say I didn't warn you about losing track of time.
