Not all insects are bugs, of course, but this spiny critter that I noticed lying calmly in ambush in the last of the Hydrangea blossoms was a bona fide member of the Order Hemiptera. This is a wide-ranging group, but the common characteristic is the possession of telltale mouthparts wrapped around a sharp and sometimes lethal beak designed for piercing. Some hemipterans pierce various plant parts and live off of sap, while others are the insect equivalent of vampires, stabbing that distinctive rostrum into skin or exoskeleton and tapping the lifesblood of victims. Sometimes this bite is more or less a nuisance, but many hemipts are adept at injecting a cocktail of nerve poisons and digestive enzymes to quickly turn a once-living creature immobile, its innards reduced to the equivalent of a slurpee. So it went with this female mosquito. The process is rather horrifying, but I didn't mind and, instead of shuddering, I wished the predator considerably more happy hunting.