UPDATED: What the heck?

UPDATE: Thanks to Johnny and his mad, college-trained, researching skills we can now share with you the good news that this wasn't a member of an advance alian recon party but instead was a member of the race known as Jerusalem Crickets. You can read more about them here. I have to say, though, that knowing they are of-this-world doesn't really make me feel any more comfortable about encountering a live one.

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What the heck?
Originally uploaded by UlloaSullivan.

I continue to be amazed by the various fauna that we encounter here at Chez UlloaSullivan. After a little more than a decade living in California I am still in awe of the Hummingbirds that visit our yard and the Eagles that soar above the mountains on my commute to the Bay Area. I marvel at the tenacity of the Gophers that consistently argue for tennants rights by leaving little mounds of dirt where they feel they should be allowed to dwell and the confidence of the family of toads that live somewhere outside our front door who seem to be completely unbothered by Cornflake's coming and going (the lizards, on the other hand are total losers and regularly get caught and/or lose their tails).

However, there are some creatures that defy my ability to be amazed by them simply because I can't quite believe they exist at all. Take this thing that I spotted lying dead near our rubbish bins the other night. It looks like it might be related to the grasshopper family except that it doesn't have any wings (that I can see) and is substantially chunkier in the body and head and therefore probably wouldn't be able to fly for long, if at all.

In any case, I have decided not to bother to research it and have instead decided to declare it 'Alien in origin', in part to amuse myself but mostly, so that I can giggle about it with M such that we won't be scared to walk outside of the house in the dark in case we're confronted by the rest of the army of fat-grasshopper-like extra-terrestrials for which this little guy was clearly just an advance reconnaisance team member.

I hope there aren't many more of them coming, though. It's all well and good having small insects get squished on your windshield/windscreen while driving on or around the legal speed limit but I'm not sure how well you would fare if you drove through a swarm of these things. Particurlarly if they were better prepared and wearing their alien armor suits and toting little alien weapons like in the movies.

It could happen. This is America, after all. The place where dreams can come true. Just hopefully not the dreams of insect-like alien invaders.