Guest Of Dishonor

Day 254: The Guest of Dishonor at today's All-Park Safety Meeting and Employee Orientation was Monochamus scutellatus, the White-Spotted Sawyer, a notorious predator of spruce and pine forests. I knew it only as a long-horned beetle of some type, so requested expert help in making an identification. I don't "do" insects. It's hard enough to manage wildflowers and specific families of lichen, so when something like this chap shows up, I turn to someone with the proper skill set, someone who is as passionate about their field as I am about mine. Knowledge is the common currency among naturalists, and for the most part, it passes freely between disciplines to contribute to a greater comprehension of the whole. The search for knowledge drives us; the sharing of that knowledge is equally compulsive. Feed us, and we will grow. Turn us on, and you may find that we don't have an "off" switch, but it is all a part of our enthusiasm for the natural world.