This is from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the Pulitzer-winning first book by the great writer and naturalist Annie Dillard.
“At the end of the island I noticed a small green frog. He was exactly half in and half out of the water, looking like a schematic diagram of an amphibian, and he didn’t jump.
He didn’t jump; I crept closer. At last I knelt on the island’s winter-killed grass, lost, dumbstruck, staring at the frog in the creek just four feet away. He was a very small frog with wide, dull eyes. And just as I looked at him, he slowly crumpled and began to sag. The spirit vanished from his eyes as if snuffed. His skin emptied and drooped; his very skull seemed to collapse and settle like a kicked tent. He was shrinking before my eyes like a deflating football.
I watched the taut, glistening skin on his shoulders ruck, and rumple, and fall. Soon, part of his skin, formless as a pricked balloon, lay in floating folds like bright scum on top of the water: it was a monstrous and terrifying thing. I gaped bewildered, appalled. An oval shadow hung in the water behind the drained frog; then the shadow glided away. The frog skin bag started to sink.
I had read about the giant water bug, but never seen one. “Giant water bug” is really the name of the creature, which is an enormous, heavy-bodied brown bug. It eats insects, tadpoles, fish, and frogs. Its grasping forelegs are mighty and hooked inward. It seizes a victim with these legs, hugs it tight, and paralyzes it with enzymes injected during a vicious bite.
That one bite is the only bite it ever takes. Through the puncture shoot the poisons that dissolve the victim’s muscles and bones and organs — all but the skin — and through it the giant water bug sucks out the victim’s body, reduced to a juice. This event is quite common in warm fresh water. The frog I saw was being sucked by a giant water bug."
monkeysky over 3 years ago
I love bugs, but toe biters can be nasty. I’d hate to run into one while going for a swim.
By the way, does the Mario perfume have any toad smells in it?
Templo S.U.D. over 3 years ago
I would hate to see Cruella de Vil wanting Hazel’s pelt.
LeftCoastKen Premium Member over 3 years ago
Coulda gone the rest of the day without reading about that bug … I’ll probably have nightmares now!
jimmjonzz Premium Member over 3 years ago
This is from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, the Pulitzer-winning first book by the great writer and naturalist Annie Dillard.
“At the end of the island I noticed a small green frog. He was exactly half in and half out of the water, looking like a schematic diagram of an amphibian, and he didn’t jump.
He didn’t jump; I crept closer. At last I knelt on the island’s winter-killed grass, lost, dumbstruck, staring at the frog in the creek just four feet away. He was a very small frog with wide, dull eyes. And just as I looked at him, he slowly crumpled and began to sag. The spirit vanished from his eyes as if snuffed. His skin emptied and drooped; his very skull seemed to collapse and settle like a kicked tent. He was shrinking before my eyes like a deflating football.
I watched the taut, glistening skin on his shoulders ruck, and rumple, and fall. Soon, part of his skin, formless as a pricked balloon, lay in floating folds like bright scum on top of the water: it was a monstrous and terrifying thing. I gaped bewildered, appalled. An oval shadow hung in the water behind the drained frog; then the shadow glided away. The frog skin bag started to sink.
I had read about the giant water bug, but never seen one. “Giant water bug” is really the name of the creature, which is an enormous, heavy-bodied brown bug. It eats insects, tadpoles, fish, and frogs. Its grasping forelegs are mighty and hooked inward. It seizes a victim with these legs, hugs it tight, and paralyzes it with enzymes injected during a vicious bite.
That one bite is the only bite it ever takes. Through the puncture shoot the poisons that dissolve the victim’s muscles and bones and organs — all but the skin — and through it the giant water bug sucks out the victim’s body, reduced to a juice. This event is quite common in warm fresh water. The frog I saw was being sucked by a giant water bug."
Aussie Down Under over 3 years ago
Believe it or not, I sometimes find the RBION comments more amusing than the RBION strip :)
Huckleberry Hiroshima over 3 years ago
We’ve gotcha beat, giant water bugs; we eat cows.
Take care, may Japanese Rodeo Champion Hirohito Yamakakahord be with you, and gesundheit.
dmagoon202ii over 3 years ago
I remember being stung(?) by a water bug bite.
RandomLantern445 over 3 years ago
That Beagle fact is amazing! I have to add this to my saved comic strips!
pearlsbs over 3 years ago
According to this article the image on Hazel’s back looks more like a dachshund instead of a self portrait.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7236545/Beagle-owner-stunned-pets-markings-look-exactly-like-dog.html
Thorby over 3 years ago
That’s a “palmetto bug” on steroids!!
oakie817 over 3 years ago
the Hazel story begs a photograph, not a drawing
Craig Westlake over 3 years ago
I’m glad it didn’t have fragrant notes of old drainpipes…