The Druze Beetle

After last night's star tour I found this Druze Beetle drinking water from a spill one of my guests had left on the desert ground. Druze beetles disappear in the winter cold and return in the summer. They have a unique method for gathering water. They turn their large bodies up into the wind to lower their body temperatures and encourage dew to form on their shells. The drew drips down their backs and into their mouths where they get a cool, refreshing drink. They are miniature weather makers with their own little bodies. I had never seen one drink water before. But this was a warm, windless night and this bug was not going to coax a drink out of the air, so I'm glad he found this puddle to slake his thirst. He sat motionless in it for a long time, then scurried off into the desert.

A Druze Beetle slakes his/her thirst in a pool of water from a guest's emptied water bottle. Astronomy Israel photo.