Fun With My New Friend

The light raindrops pattering my windshield are keeping the survey crew and I from getting back out to the site so we can finish our job. Rain means wet soil, and wet soil can't be dug, so we wait in our cars for the storm to pass. I tune my radio to the local NPR station, which happens to be playing some rather soothing classical music which I feel goes well with the patter of raindrops. I turn it up.

Just then I notice a small insect inside my car, resting on the windshield. Its miniscule body (maybe 1/20th an inch long) with miniscule wings is dwarfed by the two antennae that extend from its head, each one probably four times the length of the its body. The light rainfall outside would surely kill my new little buddy, so I decide to let it stay. I watch as I see the bug moving its antennae back and forth, back and forth, picking up the sound vibrations in the air, swaying to the beat of its environment.

And as I watch it, I notice something fascinating. Its antennae are moving back and forth at very precise intervals, intervals which match the beat of the music in my car. My new insect friend is listening to Schubert, and seems to like it. For twenty minutes he stayed like that, stuck ot my windshield, listening to the great classical composers with his oversized ears. I wonder if he likes Queen. I go to put in the CD, but then the thunderstorm strikes, startling my little friend, and scaring him to the back of the car.