Hornet Moth

We just learned about the Colossal Squid.

We know that some insects are dangerous, like hornets.

Other animals sometimes try to make themselves look like dangerous animals.
They do this so that they can be safe from other dangerous animals that might want to eat or kill them.

One great example of this is the hornet moth, that looks just like a hornet but is a harmless moth.


(from: wikipedia - hornet moth)

In nature when one animal looks like another dangerous one, it is called batesian mimicry.
What a fancy word for a copycat!

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Naked Mole Rat

Firefly

We just learned about a Butterfly Imago.

Catching fireflies in the summer time can be pretty fun!
Fireflies are sometimes also called lightning bugs, but their real fancy name is lampyridae.


(from: wikipedia - firefly)

Even when the fireflies are babies (called larvae) they glow, and are sometimes called glow worms.
(from: wikipedia - firefly)

The fireflies light up because of something called bioluminescence. That's a fancy word that means there are some chemicals in their body that mix together and glow.


(from: wikipedia - firefly)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Armadillo

Butterfly - Imago

After a butterfly has spent some time as a pupa in its chrysalis, it will come out as an adult.

An adult butterfly is called an imago, and when they first come out of their chrysalis their wings are all crumpled up. They have to spend a few hours waiting for them to dry and unfold before they can fly.


(from: wikipedia - butterfly)

Butterflies have four wings. The top left, bottom left, top right and bottom right are all different wings that just all flap together.

If you look very very close, you can see that the patterns on the wings are all made up of tiny scales, like you might see on a snake or a fish.


(from: wikipedia - butterfly)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Manatee

Butterfly - Pupa

After a butterfly has hatched from it's egg, and eaten a lot of food as a larvae (or caterpillar) it goes off to find a place to hang out.

Caterpillars usually find the bottom of a leaf, and attach themselves to it with some silk.
After that they shed their outer skin, and underneath is a hard skin that becomes the shell they stay in for a while.
When they are in this shell they are called a pupa or sometimes a chrysalis.
They stay inside the chrysalis and start growing their wings so they can turn into a butterfly.


(from: wikipedia - butterfly)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hippo Sunscreen

Butterfly - Larvae

When a baby butterfly hatches from it's egg, it crawls out as a tiny worm called a larvae.

Another word for the butterfly larvae is a caterpillar.
Caterpillars spend almost their entire time looking for food. They mostly eat leaves.

Caterpillars don't have claws or teeth to fight with, so to protect themselves some have what look like scary eyes on their body, some make a stinky smell, and some are poisonous.

(from: wikipedia - butterfly)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Frog Breathing

Butterfly Eggs

We just learned about Mosquito Larvae

Let's learn about something pretty like butterflies!

Butterflies are beautiful creatures, and we know they come from caterpillars, but how?

Butterflies lay eggs on to a leaf, and the eggs stick to the leaf with a special glue. The eggs are protected by a hard outer shell called the chorion, and they are made waterproof with some wax.

The eggs usually hatch in a few weeks. If the eggs are laid close to winter time, they will hatch in the spring.

(from: wikipedia - butterfly)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Rooster Comb

Mosquito larvae

We just learned about the Osprey bird.

We've all seen those nasty mosquitos flying around, but you might wonder what baby mosquitos look like.

Like many other insects, mosquitos go through 4 stages: egg, larvae, pupa, adult (also called imago).

The adult mosquitos lay their tiny eggs in the water.
Eventually the eggs hatch and turn into mosquito larvae, which look kind of like long tiny skinny fuzzy caterpillars in the water.
The larvae swim around in the water eating things like algea and bacteria, things we consider garbage but they eat for lunch!
They breathe air through their body with holes on their bodies called spiracles or siphons.
If mosquito larvae are living in an area that has a cold winter, they can actually get frozen solid in the water, and survive until the next spring to grow again.
This is called diapause.

(from: wikipedia - mosquito)

When the larvae get enough food, they turn into a pupa, which looks sort of like a comma shape.
The pupa doesn't eat, it just stays in the water and works on changing its body, kind of like a caterpillar turns into a butterfly.

Eventually the pupa gets big enough, cracks through its shell and then out flies a grown up mosquito, off to bite someone!

Mosquitos are annoying, but they are very important for wildlife.
Many animals like fish, frogs, dragonflies, spiders and bats all eat mosquitos either as larvae or imago.


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mosquito Proboscis

Rosy Maple Moth

We just learned about the Peacock Spider.

The rosy maple moth is a very colorful and pretty insect.

It is called a maple moth because it feeds on maple trees.


(from: wikipedia - dryocampa rubicunda)

These moths lay eggs on the bottom of maple leaves, where the baby caterpillars hatch and eat the leaves.
Once they are big enough, they climb to the ground, dig themselves a little cave in the dirt, then wrap themselves in their silk cocoon.
In their cocoon they transform, and climb out as a beautiful pink and yellow moth.

(from: wikipedia - dryocampa rubicunda)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cat Tongue

Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers are great hoppers!
Compared to a human, if a grasshopper were our size they could jump over a whole basketball court!

Grasshoppers don't have ears like ours, they have their ears on the sides of their bellies, and they are just flat, not like our ears that stick out.

(from: wikipedia - grasshopper)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Dung Beetle

Mosquito proboscis

We just learned about Dragonflies and Damselflies.

We all hate those nasty mosquito bites, but why don't we notice when they bite us?

The part of the mosquito that looks like a big long nose is called it's proboscis.
That's really part of the mosquito's mouth!

When they stick that long skinny mouth in your arm, their saliva (like their spit)
touches your skin so you don't really feel them poking you.

That saliva is also what makes those little bites so itchy!

(from: wikipedia - mosquito)

Dragonflies and Damselflies

We just learned about Horse Withers.

Dragonflies are wonderful creatures that eat LOTS of mosquitos!
They can eat 30 times their entire body weight in those nasty bugs.

When you see dragonflies, you may notice that some of them have their wings laid out flat,
and some hold their wings closed up high.

The one with the wings closed is actually called a damselfly.

Dragonfly:


Damselfly:

(from: wikipedia - dragonfly)

So be nice to dragonflies and damselflies and they will eat a bunch of mosquitos for us!

Wasps and Bees

We just learned about the Flying Squirrel.

Let's learn about Wasps and Bees.

When striped yellow bugs are flying in the air, it can be hard to tell sometimes if it is a bee or a wasp.
Maybe because there are over 100,000 types of wasps, and 20,000 types of bees!

The biggest difference you can notice is that most bees have some hair on them, and wasps have no hair.
Bees eat nectar from flowers, and wasps eat other bugs.
Most bees die when they sting you, and most wasps don't die and can keep stinging.

Even though we might be scared of bee and wasp stings, they do help us out!
Bees help make flowers grow, and wasps eat small bugs that can hurt plants and crops.

Here is a honey bee:

And a bumble bee:


Here is a yellow jacket (wasp):

Here is a hornet:

(from: wikipedia - characteristics of common wasps and bees)

Dung Beetle

The Dung Beetle is a type of insect that collects dung to survive.
If you didn't already know this, dung is another word for poop!


(from: wikipedia - dung beetle)

Some dung beetles eat the dung, some lay their eggs in it, and some others just live in it.

Many of the beetles are rollers meaning they wait until the animal has pooped, and they roll the dung into a ball.

Inside Bees

A bee's heart runs all along the heart of it's body.

(from: wikipedia - insect morphology)

They have holes in their bodies called spiracles that are openings where they take in air to breathe.

(from: wikipedia - spiracle)