Butterflies!

This was our second year raising Painted Lady butterflies. We got our caterpillars from Insect Lore. They were really tiny when they arrived-- around a half an inch long. The very next day, they were 3/4 inch long, and after that, they grew even more rapidly. We noticed that their frass changed as they matured, growing larger and darker, and that the amount of silk webbing grew each day. It only took about a week before they all formed chrysalises dangling from the roof of the caterpillar jar. We took them out and set them in the bottom of our mesh butterfly habitat. The second photo is a detail shot of a chrysalis.

I'm happy to report that they all emerged successfully. We kept them alive on sliced oranges and apples, and roses and other flowers from the garden. You can see the butterfly drinking apple juice with its proboscis in the first photo below.



After about a week, we released them in the garden. "Bye, butterfly! Have a good life!" Mikro called to each as it sailed away.



Our milkweed which we planted from seed from last year has returned, and spread. There's quite a lot of it, and I'm hoping it will attract monarchs. We also planted some milkweed cutting this spring. If we find eggs or caterpillars, that would be great (and save me a few dollars. Otherwise, I'll be ordering them from Live Monarch.) Mikro is eager to see monarchs develop first hand.

Ladybugs!

We ordered ladybug larvae from Insect Lore, and watched their lifecycle unfold. The only stage we haven't yet seen is the eggs, although as you'll see below, we are hopeful we may get to see that soon!

Larva:


Getting ready to become a pupa:



Pupa:




Emerging from the chrysalis:



Adult:


Mating:



It's amazing how once you've seen all the stages, you start noticing the larvae outside in nature. We have seen so many, that it seems 2009 will be a great year for ladybugs!

Second Batch of Mantids Hatched!

For size comparison, this is Highlander a couple days ago:

Mantid Update

Highlander (as in, "There can be only one!") is doing very well on a diet of wingless fruit flies. Our fratricidal sole survivor has grown from smaller than my pinkie fingernail, to longer than my thumb nail. I am somewhat squicked, as a vegetarian, to be furnishing this critter with prey, and it only somewhat helps to consider that the natural lifespan of a fruit fly probably isn't all that much greater than the term of their survival in the bug jar tends to be...



They are interesting little things, and we have been able to observe the larval, pupal and adult stages.

Mantids Hatching!

The mantis egg cases outside have no signs of activity yet, but the one we brought inside became a source of fascination today, as fifty or more tiny praying mantids emerged.











The hatchlings are about the length of one of my fingernails. So far we've given them raisins soaked in water, and found a few tiny bugs under my flowerpots outside. Have not observed them eating, or any signs of fratricide, yet... But according to this website:


Egg masses, collected in September or October and brought into the warm classroom, have been known to hatch in early December of the same year. Then, large numbers of very tiny mantids will suddenly appear and, if not furnished fresh, live food, they will eat each other until only one or a few mantids are left. In the laboratory, the egg mass may be refrigerated for a few weeks, and then incubated at room temperature. Often, no refrigeration appears necessary.


So I guess I know what to expect. They hatched much earlier than anticipated, so I have been caught without a supply of fruit flies to feed them. Ordered some today, but I expect there will be fewer mouths to feed when the food arrives. If it were warmer, I would release them outdoors to fend for themselves, but it is still too cold for that.

More mantis information here:


http://www.ex.ac.uk/bugclub/mantids.html
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2154.html

A Buggy Day at Nature Class and at Home

Today at Nature Class, we looked for signs of overwintering insects. Surprisingly, we saw a few active bugs in addition to frass, and holes in leaves and bark. There was a tiny spider, a mite, several springtails and a pillbug.



There was another bald eagle perched in a tree overlooking the Hudson. Too obscured by a tangle of branches to get a good photo, but still awe inspiring to stand 20 feet away from such a creature! I would never have imagined that seeing these majestic birds would become almost routine. It's amazing how far we've come since the 1970s, when DDT had depleted the population in New York down to one nesting pair, whose eggs inevitably cracked. There's a wonderful web page describing the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's very successful efforts to restore the eagle population at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/9380.html

And speaking of the DEC, they have launched a kid's magazine, which is available free online at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/education/40248.html The first issue is up, and has features on being a wildlife detective and animal tracks in winter, (and they have a grown-up's version, which looks very cool and is extremely reasonable to subscribe to (and currently on sale!) at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/40467.html) and then there's the free literature on New York State Wildlife, which is just perfect for a unit study, methinks... http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/4791.html

After we got home, I was watching birds at the feeders when I noticed some promising lumps on the branches of a leafless bush silhouetted against the neighbor's white fence. I ran out to investigate when there was a lull in the bird activity, and confirmed my suspicions-- two additional praying mantis egg cases. One was near the tip of a branch, so I clipped it and dropped it into a mesh bug enclosure, then hung it up where neither elderly cat nor young entomologist can get to it without help. Can't wait to see if they hatch! Neither can Mikro, who is doing a bug watch version of "Are we there yet?"



Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet? Have they hatched yet?

Ad infinitum...

Bugging Out

I thought the recent snowfall would surely signal an end to our entomological endeavors for the year, but we have made a couple of recent finds:

First, this mantis egg case appeared on one of our rose bushes:



And then, we found a shield bug (aka a stink bug) which tried to escape the oncoming winter by coming inside the house. This is the first time we've ever seen one of these guys! He's a bit lighter in color and more green than you can tell from the flash photos, and is missing one rear leg, but he's now safely ensconced in a bug jar.

Swarms of Ladybugs

At nature class today, the kids learned about the capped landfill, and why it is important to remove trees that start growing there. Then they assisted park naturalist Scott in chopping some down. Mikro and the younger kids followed me around as I attempted to beat the bushes and catch bugs in a net. We came up with 7 different species, the universal favorite of which was the yellow and black ladybug.



At lunch on the playground, we discovered swarms of red ladybugs covering the play equipment. All the kids helped Mikro catch them. We must have over three dozen beetles, all of whom are currently inhabiting a large terrarium, constructed out of a huge plastic pretzel barrel, in my living room. That's in addition to the fifteen or so we saw develop from larvae in a different bug jar. So, more than 50 bugs, representing three different species...

Nature Study -- Grasshoppers Gone Wild

Meet Romeo & Juliet...







Mikro has lots of nature books, is familiar with the term "mating", and knows that it takes a mommy and a daddy to make a baby, but our little green pals sure gave him a more concrete idea than the vagueness of children's science books... "Mommy, why is the father grasshopper on top of the mother?" "They're trying to make baby grasshoppers, son." Which is as detailed as I got. That, and that the mama grasshopper will lay eggs in the dirt. Well, at least it is in the context of insects, but I dread my little know-it-all loudly and descriptively sharing his knowledge with kids whose parents may not believe in even vaguely explaining this sort of thing to the very young...

Nature Study: Logs & Leaf Litter Hike

This morning, we ran to Mrs. Greens to get Mikro's allergy friendly food, and then raced like mad to make it home, stow the groceries, and run to a program at the Nature Center for all ages.

"Logs and Leaf Litter" was a hike through the park, investigating the critters that live in those environments. We were slightly late, but luckily we caught up with the group. It was us, another mom & 2 kids, an older lady and one of the park naturalists, Melissa, who brought magnifying bug jars for the kiddos to use. Lots of fun, and lots of exercise. Mikro had a blast. And we found a few bugs, some alive, some dead, for our growing collection.

We saw shells from the shell middens left by local native americans, pill bugs, cicada nymph casings, dead cicadas, spiders, monarch butterflies, yellow swallowtails, several varieties of mushroom, earthworms, millipedes, slugs, ants, water chestnuts, beach glass, poison ivy and a plant that looks like clover (aack-- name escapes me) which is a natural remedy for poison ivy. We found feathers from a woodpecker, a duck, seagulls, and canada geese.

After the hike, we visited the nature center and saw a paper wasp nest, a taxidermied fox, skulls of various local critters, and the contents of an owl pellet. I really liked Melissa, and am sure we will be going back for more programs at the Nature Center. (Today I got an email from our local homeschool coop listing classes starting mid-September at the center, which are especially for homeschoolers. I will definitely try to get Mikro into them, though he is a little younger than the suggested age (which is 6, but they require the parents to stay, so I think with a little mama help, Mikro will do fine), because he is totally into entomology and nature.)

After the hike, we found several more dead cicadas and a dead cicada killer wasp, and then got to watch a live cicada killer on the prowl. Kevin and Mikro examined a fox hole with a flashlight, and we caught a caterpillar, a small orange moth, and a ladybug to take home and study. Melissa got a kick out of the fact that we travel with empty bug jars. They sure proved useful!

Some critter photos from our hike: Slug, millipede, monarch butterfly, earthworm, bee...











Cicadas & Cicada Killers:







Cicada nymph molted casings, inside and out:






More fun in the park...







This is Mikro after we left the park to finish up our grocery shopping... Totally zonked.

The Summer of Bugs Continues-- Fly Away!

Crazy lady releasing the cicada...





Of course, I had to take photos first, and Kev caught me in the act.