Beneficial insects.

It was pure delight to receive this souvenir sheet. I thought I would only get the regular postcards agreed upon for a swap but I got a beautiful bonus! A Ukranian lady whom I met through direct swaps in the official postcrossing website sent this to me during her first weeks of moving into Canada.

It was released in 19 October 2010 as the second issue to the Beneficial Insects Definitives, first released in 2007. While the first series focused on insects often spotted in the sky, this second series is about plant and ground dwelling bugs, said Keith Martin, the designer of the series.

Featured on the sheet are: the paper wasp (Polistes fuscatus), the assassin bug (Zelus luridus), the large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus), the margined leatherwing (Chauliognathus marginatus) and the dogbane beetle (Chrysochus auratus).

The Canada Post website described the bugs: Each of the insects featured is a wonder to watch at work in the garden. There’s the paper wasp, chomping away on caterpillars and other gardening pests. Another “exterminator,” the assassin bug, uses its beak to suck the bodily fluids from its soft-bodied victims. Wildflower gardeners and farmers may appreciate the large milkweed bug for feeding on the juice from milkweed seeds, as well as the larvae of dogbane beetle for feasting on the same plant’s roots. The margined leatherwing larvae should also be prized for consuming a range of harmful insects.



It should be a Sunday Stamps full of surprises today at Viridian's. The theme is 'anything you wish' so I'm really excited to see what my fellow stamps bloggers have posted on their page.

Happy Sunday Stamps everyone!

~maria