Under normal circumstances around here, no one engages in mosquito-watching on account of the insect's beauty. The local members of the fly family Culicidae are drab and, honestly, only of interest on account of their propensity to spread annoyance, to say nothing of the occasional possibly-fatal diseases, West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis among them. But Toxorhynchites rutilus, the so-called Elephant Mosquito, is different. They are, to be sure, enormous, and, at around a half-inch in length, several-fold larger than the more common Culicids in the neighborhood. If the idea of a huge mosquito isn't enough to chill one's blood, the fact that T. rutilus also arrives in psychedelic colors may well give the observer nightmares. It shouldn't, however, for these insects are harmless... to us... and they may well be beneficial since, as larvae, they eat other species of "little fly," as mosquito means in Spanish. This Goliath among the mini is a striking creature that, as an adult, dines on nectar and plant and fruit sap... not on us or other warm-blood animals. As a youngster, it lives in water-filled tree holes, and when it emerges in mid-to-late August, it's a sight for happy eyes, not terrified ones. It's also a great photo op.