no man is an island

At times, I am not so certain that John Donne was correct.

Sure. He was simply trying to make a philosophical point about the connection of humanity. But I like to feel as if I am an island when I am floating in my pool. 

If the analogy is true, an illegal alien attempted to  cross my borders this afternoon.

I read when I float. I was in the middle of a fascinating article on the ineffectiveness of the Indonesian bureaucracy when I felt something climbing up the inside of my right leg. 

That is not that unusual. My pool is often visited by a variety of insects. Usually it is the small black beetles who have the annoying habit of biting. I suspect they are merely eating sloughing skin, but they often bite to the quick. I dispatch them as soon as I see them.

But it was not a beetle this time. It was a true bug. Or, more accurately, a rantara. We sometimes call them water stick insects because they look like their landlubber relatives. 

There are certain insects found in God's Great Plan in the "Jokes" section. The most unfortunate is the tailless whip scorpion (locally known as a "cancle") that looks ferocious, but is one of the area's most docile and beneficial insects (laughing at heaven's door).

My visitor in the pool fits in that same category.  Its rather startling appearance has earned it the name "water scorpion." It is easy to see why. Those arms, designed for grabbing, and that tail, looking like a stinger, could fool the unwary.

But it is not a scorpion. The arms really are used for grabbing -- just like a scorpion. However, the tail does not hide a stinger. It is far more utilitarian for a gill-less aquatic insect. It is a breathing siphon.

The water scorpion does carry a "venom," though. To "calm" its prey, the water scorpion inserts its proboscis into its prey and pumps in a sedative. The proboscis acts as a defensive mechanism, as well. In fear, the water scorpion will "sting" humans, though the effect is not as a bad as a true scorpion sting.

This is probably the third one that I have seen in my pool over the past six years. And I am not certain why they troll my waters. Their usual prey are tadpoles, small fish, and other aquatic insects. With the exception of the water beetles, my pool appears to be devoid of likely prey.

Of course, I may simply not be thinking like a water scorpion.  Maybe this guy had the same ambition as the spiders in one of my favorite Gary Larson cartoons.