The Congregation by Chipka

Photography • Insects • posted on Sep 28, 2008

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Description

It promised to be a mild summer. The Vltava was placid—bestirred here and there by little more than the eddied wakes of passing boats and the shouts of tourists with carbonated gold in their bellies. There were bugs as well—more than the usual variety of anonymous brown and black things barely seen. It was May. Firebug season. There was something of the common cockroach in their shape, something of burning embers in their color, though Pavl likened them to brazen street-floozies. They moved in silence, nosing around after seeds and pollen, waving their antennae and sniffing the air for the telltale pheromones of the opposite sex. “They're everywhere,” Pavl declared. “What are they called?” I asked. “Bugs,” he answered without sarcasm or guile. “I know they're bugs,” that's what we call them in English. “What kind of bugs are they?” Beyond, “small ones,” he couldn't answer...he was uncertain of their common species name in English...and it took the greater part of a day (including a few internet searches) to finally discover that Pavl's simple “bugs” were firebugs. My friends, Kača and Tomas also called them “bugs,” though I suspect that Kača's straight-faced answer to my question held a bit more playful sarcasm than the earnest, knitted-brow responses I got from Pavl and Tomas. Kača is like that, playful sarcasm is one of her more beguiling gifts. Firebugs are common throughout the Czech Republic, and on various days in may, you can see them (literally by the thousands) massed in irregular, sprawling clumps at the bases of trees. By next May, I hope to be in Russia...at long, long last, and as Spring unfolds in that particular faraway land, I'll look for firebugs, an hoist a shot of vodka in honor of a friend who made the beginning of my lifetime journey into an enjoyable, and auspicious beginning...complete with...bugs. *** As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting.