The other night while walking around our favorite pond in southern Utah, we encountered a beetle. We’ve seen new creatures almost every time we visit lately—ducks, coots, Canadian geese, goslings, lizards, caterpillars, bats, sparrows… But last night the new encounter was a bit more nerve-racking.

We’d made it more than halfway around the pond before I felt something gigantic and wing’ed fly into me. I promptly swatted at it with my water bottle and thought that had taken care of the problem. Th...