The ants have been busy lately in our dog walk area. For some reason, sand beneath the surface is a different color, making the hills particularly conspicuous. I find it interesting how many of them have appeared.

I don’t think they’re always there. Do they appear and disappear, like the several kinds of frogs, from one day to the next?

We also spotted a little snake, ~ 25 cm long, that all six dogs (happily) didn’t notice. From a clump of grass, it zipped between my legs to the safety of a nearby hole. No photo. Happened in seconds.

So how many ant species are there in Uruguay? I’m not counting.

How many ant species do you think there are in the world? Seriously, take a guess, then click here.

Our friend Gundy sent photos of a monster caterpillar in their yard. I had some incredibly camouflaged tomato hornworms a few years ago in my first garden here. I actually pointed to them from less than a meter away, and people couldn’t see them!

But this – wow.

She also sent a couple links about caterpillars:

Fotos de orugas (just learned a new Spanish word if you were paying attention 😉

Why you might not want to pick up that cute fuzzy caterpillar