Peering Through Life's Window

In the winter in Georgia someone always says, “Our weather isn’t cold enough to kill the insect eggs and larva.” I recall this now because we had an unusually frigid winter here, and I’ve seen more bugs this summer than I’ve seen in years. One particularly fascinating insect appeared on our deck while we had a house guest. I first heard it fling itself into the sliding glass door in our living room. It sounded as though a baseball struck the glass. Our guest sat in front of it. I jumped and looked at her. She shrugged her shoulders, but said nothing. A few nights later we turned out the lights to get ready for bed, and I heard a loud, staccato clicking outside. Our guest said, “It’s that bug.” “What bug?” I asked. “The same one that banged into the door the other night. When you go to bed, and I'm here on the sofa I hear it. It makes that sound. Pull back the curtain and look. It spins around. I peered outside. A lime green insect about the size of a butterfly spun aroun...