Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - Studying Monarchs
Cameron seems to have become a Monarch expert. I heard him telling someone the other day all about the Monarch: its features, its life cycle, interesting facts and figures. I was personally very impressed.
Yesterday we released our fourth Monarch this season. We took this opportunity to answer some of the questions from Handbook of Nature Study. There wasn't really anything new that we observed but it was good to review.
Some observation questions
- How can you tell the monarch butterfly from all others? The Monarch has the brilliant orange color in the wings accented with black and white. It's body is black with white polka dots.
- Why is it not afraid of birds? They are poisonous to birds and its coloring warns birds of this. We saw two birds fly right past it when we let her go.
- If there is a spot near one of the veins on each of the hind wings do you know what it is? A black spot indicates a male butterfly. The viens on a female are thicker as well. The spot is a scent glad and it is how the male attracts the female for mating. As Cameron told someone, "It smells real good to the girls."
- Describe the antenna and how does it differ from a moth? They are longer and skinny but a moth's are sor of feathery looking and not as long.
- How many legs has this butterfly? We can only find 4! We think we see some very small beginnings of two front legs but these are very, very short and kept very close to the body
- How does it hold its wings when it is landed? The wings are held upright, in a closed position. This is one of the distinguishing differences between a butterfly and a moth. Moths ' wings lay flat and open when they are landed
Cameron "narrated" what makes a Monarch special and what makes it an insect. He is really fascinated by the Monarch's tongue. We saw quite a bit of it on the one that we caught on video emerging for her chrysallis. I think she was cleaning herself off.
Tomorrow, I think we will use the observation questions for our last two chrysalli.
Comments
Friday, September 26, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Jimmie
Oh, Danielle! You did a GREAT job with your blog makeover! I LOVE it!! :-)
And the butterfly pics are amazing! Studying creation is so cool.
