Kids' Favorite Summer Bug

Photo courtesy 123rf.com

One of kids' favorite summer bugs, and certainly one of mine when I was a kid, is the Roly Poly Bug, sometimes called the Pill Bug.  They are harmless little bugs because they don't bite nor spread diseases.  What kids find most fascinating is that they will curl themselves into a hard little ball when touched.

Roly Poly bugs are crustaceans, and the only crustacean that lives its life entirely on land.  They live up to two years, like dark & wet places, and eat rotting vegetation.  For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

Night Sounds: Katy-did-it!

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Nights in the Southern United States are almost without exception filled with the sounds of insects enjoying the summer heat.  One of the most talked about, if not the most commonly heard, is the Katydid.  Last night I wondered how this bug, that is more closely related to the cricket than the grasshopper, got its name.  The general consensus is that its name "Katy-did" is the sound they make.  Click here to read an Appalachian folk-story of love & murder that resulted in the bugs identifying the murderer by exclaiming, "Katy-did-it!"

For more information click here and click here.  What did you learn today?

Consilience & World Ants

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Two days ago I reviewed a wonderful documentary about origami I saw on Sunday.  One of the premises of this documentary reminded me of a wonderful book I read, which was published in 1998, "Consilience" by Edward O. Wilson.  In the documentary the relationship of origami to other fields of study was explored; in Wilson's book consilience is the unity of all knowledge bases from science to the humanities.

Dr. Wilson is from Alabama (as am I) and grew up near Washington, D.C. (I did not, although I visited several times in my youth) and near Mobile, Alabama (as did I).  As a young man he was very interested in natural history and entomology.  He has won several awards for his research and writings primarily in science. 

What I didn't know is that as a young man he attempted to survey all the ants of Alabama.  For a website that will give you information about ants in any region of the world click here. 

What did you learn today?

Next Week: Daylight Savings Time

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On this day next week, in the U.S. and some other countries we will be changing our clocks by one hour for Daylight Savings Time.  I remember how to make the change by saying, "Spring forward, fall backward." 

The only two states who do not use DST are Arizona and Hawaii.  In 1784 American Benjamin Franklin thought of the idea and wrote and essay about it.  In 1895 New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson proposed a two-hour change.  In 1905 Englishman William Willett proposed a weekly 20-minute change over the course of four weeks each spring and fall.  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Muscle-Head!

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Soon it will be caterpillar and butterfly time in the garden.  In arming myself with knowledge-tools to make sure I can have both flowers and butterflies, but not let my flower-garden be decimated by caterpillars, I learned that caterpillars have about 248 muscles in their heads!  For more information click here.  What did you learn today?

Differences Between Moths and Butterflies

Photo of male Gypsy Moth's feathery antennae and flat resting wings courtesy 123rf.com


Photo of  Silver-studded Blue Plebejus' clubbed antennae and vertical resting wings courtesy 123rf.com

I know one difference between moths and butterflies is when at rest moths' wings lie flat and butterflies' wings are held vertically; but when I look at pictures of them where all wings are displayed flat I haven't been able to tell the difference between the two.

Three other differences between moths and butterflies are:
1.  Butterfly antennae are clubbed on the ends, moth antennae are thin or feathery on the ends.
2.  Butterfly bodies are thin and smooth, moth bodies are thick and fuzzy.
3.  Butterflies are active in the day, moths are active at night.

By the way, butterfly pupal stage is called chrysalis, moth pupal stage is called cocoon.

For more information click here.

70,000 Spiders!

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There are 70,000 types of spiders in the world.  Spiders are venomous, not poisonous.  Click here to view a really great spider website.

Grasshopper Songs

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To you and me all grasshoppers may sound alike, but each grasshopper species has it's own individual song.  Grasshoppers only mate within their own species, and they identify the different species by their song.  For more information click here and click here.

My favorite insect is the beautiful butterfly.  What is your favorite insect?

Rare Bumblebee Rediscovered

Photo of Cockerell's Bumblebee courtesy Biology News

The Cockerell's Bumblebee, the rarest species of bumblebees in the United States, has recently been rediscovered.  Last seen in New Mexico in 1956, the bumblebee was recently seen in Cloudcroft, New Mexico by scientists from the University of California Riverside.  This bumblebee lives in an area of less than 300 square miles, which is the most limited range of any species of bumblebees in the world.

For more information, see the website of BiologyNews.com.

What bumblebees live in your area?

Monarch Butterflies: Fall 2011 Migration to Mexico

Photo courtesy of Photos.com
Because the extreme drought in Texas this summer has left much less than normal water and flowers for the Monarch Butterflies to feed on as they travel south from Canada along the Eastern Seaboard to their winter home about 60 miles west of Mexico City, the numbers arriving in Mexico are expected to be the lowest in history.  Click here for more details.