Bugs, Insects, Butterflies, and Creepy Crawlies, Oh my!

One of the four challenges for September Handbook of Nature Study's Outdoor Hour Blog Carnival was insects. The new method for these challenges provides wide topics and allows the families to participate in every one of the four topics of study or delve deeper into one specific area.

My children love bugs. We never need any excuse to study bugs. As soon as I read that insects were one of the topics for this month, I knew that we would spend our entire month examining bugs.

One day during September, we went out to our front yard and counted chrysalises. This sounds like a simple activity and it was. What was amazing was two things. One: it was very successful with my children and they wanted to re-count and re-count the chrysalises. And two: upon each re-count, we observed more chrysalises that we had missed in the previous count. It became apparent that even when looking for them, the soon-to-be-butterflies were practicing some pretty good camouflage. Final count: 20.

4 Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Chrysalises

3 more Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Chrysalises

3 more Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Chrysalises

Another day, we went to Muddy Creek. One of our goals was to find insects that we might not see at home. In some ways, we were wildly successful. We pulled the bark off a fallen tree and observed the insects at different stages of development.

We were also able to see some type of bug swimming in the water. Was it a water strider, or some other sort of water bug? When we looked at several books we had obtained from the library because of this month's study, we couldn't really decide which bug it was.

And probably most exciting was the discovery of cicadas. Did you know that cicadas are the loudest known thing in the insect kingdom? Did you know that cicadas don't stridulate (rub body parts together to make noise-- a new nature word for us from this month's study), but they make noise by moving muscles in their bodies that result in a drum-like effect. Cicadas are not territorial like crickets and grasshoppers tend to be, but rather they congregate together in trees and the males all make this sound together, thus amplifying the sound so that it can be heard from quite a distance.

It was definitely the loudest nature walk we have ever taken. :)

cicada exoskeleton

another cicada exoskeleton

 We are also working on a running list of insects we see. Many of them, we don't know the name of, and have to settle for a description, such as, "teeny tiny beetle," "teeny tiny moth," etc. We should have included things like that spittle looking stuff that some larval forms of insects make to camouflage themselves, but we haven't.

We have plans to go to a local stream and watch the water to see if we can see any other interesting insects. We have read some great books from the library, both serious and read-aloud books. And, all in all, we have had a fantastic time and plan to continue the study through the end of the month.

As an added bonus, because of these wonderful nature studies guided by Barb at Handbook of Nature Study Blog, I had the children do a worksheet from last month's newsletter.  I discovered that my children are interested in pursuing more thoroughly slugs and snails, leaves to include identifying and how they change colors and how they obtain food from sunlight, mimosa trees, roots, roses, butterflies, crystals, clover and pill bugs. I had no idea that the kids would be interested in re-visiting slugs and snails, or butterflies, both of which we have covered rather extensively. I had no idea that they would be interested in rock formations or roots or tree leaves. I guess we have some things to look forward to in the coming months. :)

I cannot say strongly enough how grateful I am for these nature studies in my family life and our homeschool. Our lives have been enriched in so many ways through these studies. I encourage you to check out the Handbook of Nature Study website, especially the Outdoor Hour Blog Carnival posts.

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