Where I live, in Northern Vermont, every Fall the monarch butterflies, Danaus plexippus, fly through our yard, feeding on the flowers, and resting their tired wings. Where are these beautiful creations going in such great numbers? Well, that depends on where you are. Since I'm East of the Rocky Mountains, the butterflies I see are going to the mountains of Mexico, and if you are West of the Rocky Mountains, they are going to California. Below is a map to show where they travel:

These butterflies travel farther then any other butterflies, over 3000 miles! They are the only butterflies to make such a long migration every year. Amazingly, they fly in masses to the same winter roosts, often to the exact same trees, though neither they not their parents have ever seen them or been to this site. It is postulated that they know when to travel by the day length and temperatures around them; however, their ability to navigate this trek still remains unexplained. Some other butterflies and moths also travel long distances, but they travel following the food sources.

The Monarchs which leave from my area are the largest and strongest type. This is because they have to make the long trip. Their descendents follow the Milkweed plant north as the weather warms, laying eggs which hatch, feed on the milkweed, pupate and emerge, feed and fly more northward to the next Milkweed emergence,and the cycle starts again, until the last largest veriety is hatched out up in the north- to fly back to Mexico, and begin all over again!

It is wonderful that God would create such smart, enduring, and beautiful creatures for all to enjoy. 

Credits:

Monarchwatch.org

&

Saul Costa

   In this post I wanted to give a brief introduction on how to pin insects. I'm not sure what species this is in the first photos, and the one in the last pic is a "stink bug." It is a hymoptera, the true bugs order. You can tell it is because of the shield-like back. Now, on to the pining.

Life-Like Pinning:

Life-Like pinning is when one tries to "set" the insect in the most life-like pose possible. There is another type of pinning, in which one constricts the insect to save space, and that is shown at the bottom of this post.

This first photo shows the insect before I began pinning it.

The first pin goes through the abdomen a little below the thorax and a little to the right of the center. The photo below is not correct placement because the insect had an abdomen unsuitable for pinning.

These 2 pins are to hold the insect in place while it is drying, which takes about a week.

Here I have put the insect's antenna in the most life-like pose I can, and I did the same with the front right leg.

Now I am furthering the life-like pose pinning process with the five remaining legs.

This is the insect, finished with pinning. Note: The left-back leg "foot" is missing.

Compact-Type Pinning

In this way, as I said above, the object is to compact the insect as much as possible. This technique is often used on small insects, like the one shown below.

The insects take about a week to dry. Once finished, move the insects to a secure place like a special insect case. Several mothballs can be added to the case to help prevent insect damage. After the insect has dried and I have removed the pins, I will post a photo of it.

Just wanted to show you guys some insects pics I snapped recently. I'm not sure what they are, except the bottem one is a horse fly.

Discount Homeschool Supplies is giving away a FREE microscope to one winner! Find out more on Tami's Blog!   Tami is going to give away one of  her new MSK-01 microscopes. The retail value is $199.99, and she needs help in spreading the word about her June and July website specials so please go help her out.

Click HERE for more!

Yesterday my Mom spotted an interesting Arachnid. No, it wasn't a spider, but it had 8 legs. Thinking it was a tick (which are almost non-existent where I live, northern VT) we put it in a small plastic bag for my Dad to see.

Upon arriving home and examining the creature, it turned out to be a Pseudoscorpion.

Pseudo- fake, pretend, simulated, bogus, counterfeit

Scorpion- arachnid (eight-legged organism) with poisonous stinger

This is what Spiders and Their Kin had to say about Pseudoscorpions: 

"Pseudoscorpions are common everywhere but are rarely seen because of their secretive habits. They do not have a long tail and stinger as do scorpions, but most have poison glands in their pincers, used solely to capture their prey, small insects.

This summer I am working with nematodes for a lab technition. I am taking pictures with a microscope of them, and then I have to measure them. That's the hard part, it involves a lot of clicking! The insects were mainly eggs when I left on Friday, and when I get back on Monday they will probally all be adults!

This is somthing I found on the web about them:

Provided by the University of Nebraska - Lincoln  Nematology webpage.

This is what the eggs look like:

The adult:

Photo credits:

Eggs: Laurence I. Miller

Adult: Christopher Hogger

Every year, I raise Eastern Tent Moth Caterpillars, malacosoma americanum. Right now I have four "tents" (see picture 1). I keep them in a retired lizard tank.

                              Picture 1 "The Tent"

If it's your first time raising them, I do NOT recommend you keep four tents. In fact, I'd keep no more then twenty-five caterpillars. Feed them cherry leafs, whatever seems like the right amount.  

After a while, some (not all) of the caterpillars will turn into moths (see picture 2).

                                Picture 2 "Adult Moth"

                             Picture 3 "Larva"

Photo Credits:

Picture 1- Terry Price

Picture 2- Lacy L. Hyche

Picture 3- John A. Weidhass

InsectImages.com

The Entomologist

I'm sorry I have not been posting much. It's raining at our house and there is not much insect stuff you can do in the rain.

Will post soon,

The Entomologist

I can’t believe I forgot to post about my supper that I had on Thursday, May 3! My Dad, who is a professor, had Bug Banquet for his last class. I got to attend

Now, it was no ordinary dinner. In fact, the first thing I ate there was mealworm-pesto pasta. No, it wasn’t pesto pasta that was just called that for fun, there was literally mealworms in it. I must say, it was actually pretty good! The mealworms, and others that tasted them agree with me, tasted like greasy potato chips.

This is the pasta:

Then came the croquets. They had spinach and crickets in a mashed potato “bun.” I think, and so do many others, that they were the best tasting bug food there. (There were also vegetables, Jell-O, and some punch.)

Here are the croquets:

The chocolate-chirp cookies tasted ok. They were cookies with chocolate-chips and crickets. I had some of those. There was also chocolate-kisses, which, have about 7-11 insect parts each.

The cookies:

The chocolate-kisses: (purple and silver)

There was also some Jell-O with mealworms and crickets, but it tasted horrible.

The Jell-O:

The insect foods that I didn’t try were: corn chips with mealworm dip, and ants on a log (actually, there was a problem with the ants so we had to use crickets). The reason I didn’t try them is because it’s quite an experience eating insects, one that can not be done too much unless you are used to it.

The dip:

The ants on a log (sorry it’s fuzzy)

Well, that’s about all. If you want to read about the insects that we ate then go here.

These are one of the insects we ate at the Bug Banquet.

Yellow mealworm larvae

Tenebrio molitor Linnaeus

Photo by: Clemson University - USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, www.insectimages.org

House cricket

Acheta domesticus

Photo by: Joseph Berger, www.insectimages.org

Yesterday I went to work with my Dad. He brought me because he needed some help collecting viburnum leaf beetle eggs. (See picture 1) It turned out that the "egg sacks" we collected (circled in red on picture 2) contained larva, because the eggs had already hatched.

Picture 1

Picture 2

I'll post more about them when I get a little more "in depth info."

Until then,

The Entomologist

Photo credits:

Paul Weston, Cornell University, Insect Images

Our computer is going to be "at the shop" for a week, more or less. The CD drive busted and we are having it fixed. So, this post is to say that I will probably not be posting for about a week.

My Grandma is going to be here from Tuesday to Saturday. On Wednesday I am going to the "Bug Banquet." I'll post all about it and some pics as soon as I can.

Until then,

The Entomologist

I began trapping insects several days ago. (Click here to learn how) Every time I can, I will be posting what I caught and some photos. You can access the lists by clicking here of the “Cup Contents” link on my sidebar. I will only be recording the insects I preserve. 

Trapping insects is a very fun and easy hobby. No, put away that #3 foothold, and get out your plastic cups and a hand trowel.

A One Cup Trap

First, dig a hole in a likely looking spot. (Under a rock, in some thick grass, somewhere where people don't go too frequently) Dig a hole a little deeper then the cup. Insert the cup into the ground (try not to get to much dirt in it) and pack the dirt around it to make it look undisturbed. Now, you can either fill it with soap water or leave it dry.

A Two Cup Trap

I prefer this method of insect trapping to the one above. This is because you can remove the upper cup that contains the insects on do what you want with them, and the bottom cup does not let the dirt fall into the hole that you spent hours digging. :-) The way you make this trap is to do the same as above, but with two cups stuck together.

You can buy traps online, but the quick ways I have listed above are all you need to create an effective, cheap trap.  

If you are a new visitor, leave me a comment!

The larvae is a little less then a cm long. I can see the bristles on it very clearly.

By Dad brought us home some Painted Lady Butterfly larvae (see picture 1). In the few days that it has been here, it has almost tripled its body size! The larvae like to feed on thistle plants, but the adult will lay eggs on a wide variety of plants if there is no thistle available.

1. Larvae. Note the consumed plant and droppings, as well as the "thorns" on the thistle.

2. Adult on Lilac flowers.

Photo credits:

1. Whitney Cranshaw

2. David Cappaert

www.insectimages.org

   1. Monarch caterpillar   2. Monarch cocoon   3. Adult monarch

   The Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, undergoes complete metamorphosis. This means that when they hatch from the egg they are caterpillars, not nymphs (small insects that look like adults).

   The caterpillars feed on milkweed and molt (shed their skin) several times. After the last molt, they form a cocoon. In about 14 days, a beautiful adult monarch will emerge.

   The adult will fly off, eventually mate with another Monarch, and if it’s a female, lay eggs.

   I once found a monarch caterpillar. You should have seen that thing grow! One day, I noticed that it had spun a cocoon. I checked it regularly for a few days, and then forgot about it. Then, one day soon after that, I was working in near it’s tank and I noticed that the butterfly had emerged!

   It was a wonderful experience to let it crawl on my finger while it prepared for flight! I had always wanted to have one do it to me, but one never had. It was a wonderful experience.  

4. A quick graph of complete metamorphosis 

Picture Credits:

1. Arnold T. Drooz, USDA Forest Service

2. Herbert A., Texas Forest Service

3. David Cappaert

www.insectimages.org

4. Saul Costa gollum@integrity.com

This is one of my many insects that I have pinned. This one is a snakefly, I think. My Dad caught it last summer. Sorry I haven't been posting much! When summer comes I will be posting a lot more. Anyway, here is the picture:

And here is another one of my insects, a Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa). (By the way, this isn't the perfectly pinned insect)

Photos property of Saul Costa. Copyright 2006

Please email me to obtain permission to use them for non-commercial purposes.

Will write more soon,

The Entomologist

The woolly bear caterpillar is the larva of the Isabella moth. Many people, when they here "woolly bear caterpillar," think of the insect pictured below: but there really are 8 different species.

Folk lore claims that the harshness of the upcoming winter is determined by the length of the brown band. The longer the band, the milder the winter. I have watched the woolly bears every year, and this lore seems to be true!

Photo property of Saul Costa. Copyright © 2006

For non-commercial use of this photo please email me. 

I deleted this entry before by mistake, so I am re-posting it.

Carabus aruatus, commonly known as the Strawberry Eater, belongs to the family CarÜbidae and the order Coleüptera. This insect measures about 30 mm long. It has a shiny green top, orange legs, large mandibles, and is black underneath. The family CarÜbidae, which it comes from, is commonly known as the ground beetle family. It is the third largest family in North America, with only the families Staphylinidae and Curculionidae larger.

   Introduced from Europe, this insect is an important predator to slugs. Carabus aruatus lives from the Eastern U.S. to the Midwest. They may appear around houses, and they are most active in the spring. They are also suggested to feed on the larva of the Malacosüma amaricÜnum, commonly known as the Eastern tent moth caterpillar. Malacosüma amaricÜnum larva is a pest to cherry trees, along with a few other trees. Its silken tent houses many eating machines, who can do devastating damage to the tree.

   Carabus aruatus can become a pest, because they can become very numerous. A cup in the ground with soap-water is a good way to kill them. I once caught fifty-two of them in three months. Even though this insect can become a pest, it is a beautiful creation of God.

   As I close this paper, I hope that my reader, if searching for information on this insect, now knows a little more about this wonderful creature.

Hey! Right now I am working on starting an insect magazine, called “The Entomologist.” It will be a free web-magazine that I e-mail to my subscribers. It’s not going to start until this Spring/Summer, but if you have an insect-related article, picture, or poem, e-mail it to me. I want the magazine to have lots of stuff that my subscribers submit, so don’t worry about sending too much!

Recently I grew some yeast fungi. I don’t know if that’s the right thing to call it, but it will have to do for now. Anyway, this is how I did it:

Supplies:

Yeast

Warm water

Sugar

Petri dish

1. Put approximately 1.7 teaspoons of yeast in the Petri dish.

2. Add some sugar.

3. Add enough warm water that the yeast/sugar is damp, but not slushy.

4. Mix the substance up a little.

After a little while, this is what it will look like this:

Note the slight ‘swelling’ in the mixture. That white stuff is just a little paper towel, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

In a few hours, this is what you will get:

The fungi will grow even more if you ‘feed’ it more sugar. It won’t last for ever, but it should ‘live’ for at least 3 days!