Moths, Beetles, Spiders and Ticks

One-eyed Sphinx (Smerinthus cerisyi)

On Tuesday, June 20, we had an unscheduled bug hunt. I had sort of run out of lessons for the kids, so we went outside. I thought it would be to play, but they grabbed their bug containers and hunted. And they found some beauties!

I finally did my sphinx moth photos properly, with finger and head shots. I wish I had audio taped the student reactions when they saw me lift the moth on my finger the first time. The gasps were just huge. The little kids barely moved. When the moth began to shake as it warmed its wings, they warned me. Those little pre-K and K kids learn!

We had time to have other children hold the moth and they passed it finger to finger and quietly gasped and "aww-ed" as the moth walked on their hands. They had never experienced such a sensation before. I quickly took as many shots as possible.

The next moth they found was a hickory tussock moth. This is a fuzzy caterpillar moth that you do not want to touch. But the adult is gorgeous. Once again, we held it and passed it from child to child. By this time they had become old hands at moth handling. The boys were enchanted by the green eyes.

Hickory Tussock Moth (Lophocampa caryae)

Another moth, though, was my favorite of the day: the Splendid Dagger. I had never seen this one before, so it was a lifer for me. I have a fondness for black and white moths, just as I do for black and white cats.  😉

Splendid Dagger (Acronicta superans)

One boy, our youngest, has a passion for spiders. He even uses "arachnid" properly at his young age. He wants spider movies all the time, not insect videos. On the last day of school, I granted his wish and we watched the PBS Nature "The Spider Hunter" video. This sheet-weaver spider was his find. They actually do make webs that look like messy sheets.

Sheet-Weaver Spider (Subfamily Linyphiinae)

Blackclock Ground Beetle (Genus Pterostichus)

There seem to be a lot of ground beetles at school. Actually, there are a lot of ground beetles everywhere, but the kids at school always find them. In the fall, when the days and nights are warm, I will teach them how to make pitfall traps to capture them overnight.

When we released our bugs, the moths went straight for the shirt of Steve, the classroom counselor. That was fun for the kids and great for the camera.

American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis)

Alas, when we came inside again, my little spider boy spied a tick on his sneaker. How he saw it baffles me. I could barely, barely see the dot on his shoe. I love my bug camera that zooms in so well. I now carry my tick kit (tweezers, identifying card and alcohol wipe) with me all the time because of Lucy and ticks this year. We carefully disposed of the tick properly.

I love my summers. But oh, I am going to miss those little boys. We did sneak one more hunt in on the last day of school after the spider video. That hunt was stupendous! Stay tuned.

_/\_/\_

Kindergarten Bug Hunts

Genus Melanolophia 
with green eyes!

I caved on Monday and made each of the six pre-K and K boys (there are only boys in that class) their own bug collection container. I say "caved" because having bug hunts can be a problem. Little kids love bugs and get overly excited. Also, with my disability, I cannot take them out like in the good old days and must rely on other staff for that. But I could not resist their enthusiasm. They were amazed as they watched me create the containers, yet all I did was heat up a paper clip and poke air holes in the lid of plastic deli containers that I had from an old fossil unit. Then I wrote each their names on their own container with a Sharpie. The school is very rural, at the edge of the woods where there are bear and deer. We reviewed the rules for going outside, I told them to move slowly and gently (that is hard for boys this age!) and we let them out the classroom door. They returned 10 minutes later with the beautiful moth shown above . . . and . . .

Pyractomena larva

. . . a baby firefly! I was thrilled. I have never seen one before. Today we did a mini-lesson on fireflies to celebrate the find. 

I showed them a tick that I took off of Lucy last night and froze for them.

American Dog Tick
(Dermacentor variabilis)

I am so pleased we did a few tick lessons.
One student already found a tick on himself
and knew exactly what to do.

The boys taking turns looking at the tick.

The other creatures they found were: 

Moth cocoon

Two unidentified ground beetles
(Genus Pterostichus)

Winter Firefly (Ellychnia corrusca)

The last firefly is probably the same species as the larva from yesterday and was shown to me after class when three of the boys ran (for real), yelling my name (for real), into my next class in another room—so excited that nobody could stop them. My older math students know these little kids and were softly chuckling and waited very patiently for me to tell them what their bug was and photograph it. The K teacher is probably cursing me under her breath.  😉

We're having a great time. The best time. It's a shame that we will close for summer in four weeks now. I can't wait to see what bugs they will have found for us tomorrow morning.

All bugs are released safely after inspection and photos.

_/\_/\_