Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995 TAG: 9506230041
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The question occurred on a recent warm night when fireflies in front yards were blinking their luminescent stomachs, inviting any children (who might still prefer the outdoors over TV) to catch them, for gentle placement in Mason jars with holes punched in the lids.
Once upon a time children also caught June bugs - a very big, green-tinted, day-flying variety of beetle with a buzz as loud as a lawn mower. Some kids would tie string around the leg of a June bug, and watch it circle overhead - until they could no longer stand the noise. Then they'd cut the string and turn it loose.
A couple of entomologists assure us these June bugs are still around Virginia, though probably in reduced numbers because chemicals used on city and suburban lawns have depleted their food source: decaying organic matter in the top soil. Just as well, we reckon, because animal-rights groups would probably object to children tethering their legs. Oh, said the entomologists, those groups don't worry too much about insects.
(They apparently did not see the movie, ``Serial Mom,'' which featured the homicide of a common house fly. The movie's director, John Waters, resorted to using trick photography to stage a fake fly-squashing, and included a sworn statement at the movie's end: No real flies were killed or injured in the making of this film.)
Anyway, it's nice to know June bugs aren't extinct. After all, they not only evoke pleasant childhood memories. They have metaphorical value. ``Cute as a June bug'' comes to mind.
Even President Clinton has made rhetorical use of them. In arguing the case for the North America Free Trade Agreement, for instance, Clinton said, ``I would jump on this like flies on a June bug.'' Our entomologist friends wouldn't speculate as to the size of predatory flies in Arkansas that might jump on June bugs.
by CNB