Leech
June 30, 2010
Hi Bugman,
I found this crawling across the yard and thought it was a worm. The nearest water source was at least 75 feet away. I’m thinking a bird or something dropped it. My husband informed me it was a leech. Did not know leeches were here in Chesapeake, VA. I did not kill but placed it in a ditch the farthest from the house. I was looking up a bug the other day on WTB and noticed you only had one pic of a leech posted and was reminded of mine. The pics are of it “stuck” to a rock when I wet it to keep it moist while I took pics. You could not pull off. Can you tell me what type it is? Thanks! ps I have more pics!
Dawn in SE VA
Southeast VA

Leech? or other Annelid Worm???

Hi Dawn,
Though we are inclined to agree that this is a Leech, we are not certain.  We hope that by posting your letter and image, we can get a confirmation from an expert in Leeches and Annelid Worms.

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Pupal case embedded in decaying rat?
June 1, 2010
Hello! I have long loved your website and need your help! This large, hive-shaped brown growth is emerging from the throat of a large brown rat my cat killed. You may be able to see the significant maggot population under the forearm, but the corpse is still intact for the most part. It appears larger than most of the fly pupae I have found descriptions of on the internet. Can you help? I am very curious – almost mistook it for a cancerous growth! Thank you!!
W. Barker, huge fan!
Sierra mountains, Northern CA

Thing on a Dead Rat

Dear W. Barker,
If we had just read your letter and there was no photo, we would have argued that the creature was a Rodent Botfly in the genus Cuterebra, but the thing on your dead rat looks nothing like the Rodent Botfly Larva pictured on BugGuide.  We are going to post your letter and photos and request assistance from our readership.

Thing on a Dead Rat

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Nasty emails
May 8, 2010
LOL—OMG!! YOu poor folks….I am working three jobs now to make ends meet, and trust me, I have favorited it to return and read each and every item there. I only want to know: Where are these nutjobs? They should have GPS trackers so we can avoid them when a signal is received.
Hang in there, your works are great!
Margo Rose
SW Florida

Butterfly Garden

Hi Margo,
We are catching up on some old letters from when we were out of the office, and we got tremendous glee from reading your letter.  Our Nasty Reader section grew out of the rudeness we experience occasionally.  We must say that the vast majority of our readers are kind and gentle folks who show us great respect and appreciation, but occasionally a real piece of work crawls out of the woodwork to push our buttons.  Then we put them on blast for some public humiliation.

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Ed. Note: We couldn’t really decide if this was a joke or a serious identification request, but nonetheless, we find it most amusing.

picture of unidentiifed flying bug
April 16, 2010
I have lots of these photos in about the same quality. Usually they are stills taken from movies (digital camera).
I have tried enlarging them but they are so fuzzy I can’t make them out. I got your name from rzapolin.
Can you clear up the image(s)?
Thanks for any help!
Jim Ruff
Salt Lake City, Utah and Sacramento, CA

UFO

Dear Jim,
Insects generally have six legs and four wings.  Your Unidentified Flying Objects are more cigar and saucer shaped without appendages.  We hope these images are not classified.

UFO

Amazing service – thank you! Here is more info, and another question
Howdy Daniel,
Wow, thanks for the great customer service!  Prompt, professional, courteous.
I have dozens of these pictures – usually taken from videos of about 1 minute in duration or less.  The pictures were taken in my backyard, in a friend’s backyard, or on a public trail.
I have one in particular which is posted on Youtube, but I was told they are raindrops hitting the lens.
You are the only one who has said flat out that these are saucers.  Everyone else has said they are insects of some type.   May I ask how you are able to make that distinction?  I happen to know you are correct, but I am most curious as to how you arrived at that conclusion when supposedly ‘professional’ investigators from very well-known organizations said they are simply bugs.
Is there any way to clear up these images to be able to see the saucer or cigar shape?
Thanks again for your great service – I truly appreciate it.  Feel free to call me directly if you are so inclined.
Jim

Dear Jim,
We would never be so presumptuous to claim that life, possibly even intelligent life, could not exist somewhere in the vastness of space, but we are really not qualified to analyze your imagery as to authenticity or proof of an extraterrestrial visitation.  We are competent enough at photography to know that photographs can be staged, and since we are enormous fans of the Antonioni film Blow-Up, we also know that it is possible to see what one wants to see in an image.  With that stated, we would also like to take the opportunity to share our own sighting with our readership.  The image here was taken in 1996 when we worked at the Griffith Observatory, and it is printed directly from an original negative with no darkroom manipulation or any postproduction alterations.  Enjoy.

Casual Observer staff sights UFO at Griffith Observatory

At the time this image was reproduced in the 1997 Casual Observer calendar, subtitled 13 months of casually observing, it ran with the caption:  “The photo staff is captured on film as they attempt to capture on film an event nonpareil, the coming of aliens to the Hall of Science.  Later, the L.G.M. were apprehended after breaking into the Table of Elements and brought down to the ranger station for questioning and torture.”  Limited editions of the monthly publication The Casual Observer as well as the commemorative calendar are considered highly collectible in some circles.

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