That first critter is awesome-- nature's fascinating that way.
About the flying cockroaches, well, they're rare in NY, but they do exist, and are frightening to say the least. At the restaurant I worked at, in the summer we'd keep the doors in the dining room open (swinging window-type doors) and had some seating outside under the awning. Well, after one torrential rainfall (the doors were open because we had the awning so it didn't matter), this freaking HUGE flying cockroach or waterbug or whatever descends from outside and flies behind this lady sitting on the banquette along the wall, causing her and her friends to gasp and exclaim to me, "kill it!"; with a look of incredulity on my face from her
clearly insane request, I said, "that thing'll kill
me", and proceeded to fetch my fellow waiter, who's not nearly as much of a
girly-man as I am when it comes to insects.
