Last evening, about 7 p.m., I happened into the kitchen to get something to eat. On the kitchen window was this yellow, almost-transparent insect. I guessed that it was a cricket but I've never seen one quite this color before.
In the dazzling, late day sunshine, he looked like a sunbeam come to life. He continually inched his way up the glass but I managed to grab my camera and take this shot before he disappeared over the top.
My first thought was of a cave cricket. You've seen pictures of them ... transparent and blind. I imagined an unseen cavern beneath Pinehaven and this cricket freed from the depths to be dazzled by his first glimpse of light.
But I think (thanks to local science teacher Jill Weaver) that this is no more than a common camel-back cricket. My guess is that it's very young, perhaps fairly newly emerged and hasn't yet taken on the darker coloration of an adult. Because the shot was taken through the glass, his "camel-back" was facing the other way and is not visible.
Anyone care to venture another guess?
