GARDEN TIME CHRONICLE July 2011 Issue 1 The Wide World Of INSECTS Insects are fascinating animals. It is Insects eat plants, nectar, other estimated that there are 1,017,018 insects and even blood They also species of insects in the world. provide a meal for many other Wow! That means you could spend animals, like fish and birds! This your whole life looking at different isn t their only job though! Insects kinds of insects and never see them are necessary for pollinating trees all. Some insects live in water, and plants to make fruits and new some are found in the ground plants! Many insects also help to and some prefer the trees, but no decompose dead and decaying matter what environment they live plant and animal material turning it in, insects are very important to our into usable compost! Even though eco-system. most insects are tiny, its a good thing they are around! Parts of an Insect Insects are arthropods. All arthropods have exoskeletons, segmented bodies, and at least three pairs of legs. All insects have a hard skeleton on the outside of their bodies. This is called the exoskeleton. Each insect has three main parts; the head, thorax and abdomen. The insect can have simple or compound eyes (or both!) for seeing and two antennae for feeling and communicating. Some insects drink nectar, and have mouthparts shaped like a straw called a proboscis to suck up liquid. Other insects have chewing mouthparts and eat leaves or other plant matter. Some insects bite or pinch, and others pierce and suck blood or plant fluids. All insects have three pairs of jointed legs, which are attached to the thorax. Most insects also have wings that are also attached to the thorax. Insects breathe through holes along their body called spiracles. Can you find all of these parts? This is a close up look at a butterfly s proboscis. It uses this straw-like mouth to suck up nectar. A black ant uses its antennae and front legs to investigate. In This Issue: 5 Senses.... 6 A Few Good Books.... 8 Fact or Fiction.... 7 Honey Bee Crossword.... 5 I SPY!... 3 Life Cycles.... 2 Magic of Metamorphosis.... 2 Websites to Drive you BUGGY!... 6 What the Buzz?................................. 4 thorax antennae legs head abdomen wings
The Life Cycle of an Insect The of Metamorphosis PRESTO CHANGE-O! The metamorphosis of a butterfly is one of nature s greatest magic tricks. The wormy multi-legged caterpillar emerges from its egg with only food on its mind. After eating non-stop, the caterpillar transforms into a pupa called a chrysalis. (Moths make cocoons) Inside the chrysalis, the pupa s body changes and soon a winged adult butterfly emerges! Just like a baby grows into a child and then into an adult, insects change as they grow. This change is called metamorphosis. Although each species of insect goes through these changes a little differently, they all experience the same stages: Egg - An adult insect lays eggs in a safe place. Larva - the egg hatches into a larva, the larva eats and grows and grows. Insects can molt, or shed their skin many times in this stage Pupa - The insect s body parts are reorganized & reformed (Not all insects go through this stage) Adult - The insect emerges as a full-sized insect. Usually it does not grow during this stage and sometimes does not even eat! The adult gets ready to lay more eggs! The Metamorphosis of a Monarch Butterfly The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle 2 Life Cycles, Metamorphosis
I SPY! Use this checklist to keep track of which insects you have spotted this summer Firefly (Lightening Bug) As larva, I live underground eating worms, snails and slugs. I hibernate through winter until I emerge as an adult early in spring eating a variety of plants and other insects. I flash a yellowish light to communicate with other fireflies. Each of my 1,900 species has a different flashing language. Not all fireflies produce light. Grasshopper I am found in gardens and fields all over the world. I only eat plants. I can grow as big as 5 inches long and can hop up to 20 times my body length. I have 5 eyes and no ears, but I can still hear! I have a tympanal organ on my abdomen. You can tell I am an adult grasshopper because I have wings, as a larva I look just like an adult but with no wings! I can live about one year. Mosquito I spend my life within one mile of wherever my egg hatched. I am often found near rivers, ponds, lakes, streams or pools of standing water. Male adult mosquitoes drink the juices of decaying materials and only live about 20 days. Females drink blood because she needs it to develop her eggs and can live up to 100 days! I am one of the oldest insects and was alive during the time of the dinosaurs! Cicada In my larva stage I spend most of my life underground, sometimes as long as 17 years. As an adult I live above ground for as long as 40 days. I have transparent wings with many colors and patterns, red eyes and a black body that can be as big as 3 inches long. I make the loudest sound of any insect and you can hear my song for up to a half a mile away. Giant Swallowtail I live in North & South America. As a caterpillar I only eat leaves from citrus trees and as an adult and as an adult, I drink the nectar from flowers. As a caterpillar I am sometimes called the Orange Dog Caterpillar. I camouflage myself by looking like bird droppings. As an adult I scare away predators with the spots on my wings. Praying Mantis I am found in warm climates on bushes and trees where I can blend in with my surroundings. I can be green or brown and am the only insect that can turn my head side to side 180 degrees. I can spot movement up to 60 feet away! I eat harmful insects in the garden, and before I do, I paralyze them by biting the back of their neck! While I might look scary - I am harmless to humans! Luna Moth I live in trees in the eastern part of the US and Canada. I can lay up to 600 eggs! As an adult my wingspan is almost 5 inches long and 4 inches wide! I am one of the largest moths in North America! As a caterpillar I eat hickory, sycamore and walnut leaves but as an adult I do not have a mouth so I don t eat anything at all! Once I am an adult, I only live about one week. Japanese Beetle I live in the United States, Asia, Europe and Canada. My egg is laid on the ground in the fall, as a larva I live underground and as an adult I feast on over 300 species of plants (including poison ivy!) While I am a very pretty beetle with a shimmery metallic green shell and copper colored wings, I am very destructive and can eat my way through any garden that gets in my way! I SPY! 3
What the Buzz? Honey Bees are one of the most important insects in the world! Bees have a very important job! They are in charge of pollinating flowers and fruit trees! If there were no bees, there would be no flowers, no vegetables, no fruit and no honey! Honeybees collect clear sticky water called nectar from flowers. They use nectar to make food to last them through the winter, this food is called honey. While the honeybee is collecting nectar, pollen from the blossom sticks to the fuzzy hairs on her body. When she visits the next flower, the pollen rubs off. Flowers need this pollen to make seeds and fruit! Bees live together in nests called hives. After bees have found a suitable location for their new home, worker bees use wax that they have stored in their stomachs to begin to build walls for storing beeswax and honey. Bees create hives by chewing wax until it becomes soft. They work together to shape lots of wax onto the cells of a honeycomb. A hive can contain as many as 20,000 bees! That s a lot of roommates! Every honeybee living in the hive has a special job. Female bees are called worker bees. They are responsible for tending to the hive and finding food. Male bees are called drones. They are in charge of mating with the queen bee and protecting the hive. The hive has only one queen bee. She is the only bee that lays eggs. Workers and drones usually live 30 days. A queen bee can live up to 3 years! Honey Bees Around the World Bees are important everywhere. These postage stamps from Romania and Russia honor the roll bees play as pollinators Are you afraid of bees? Many people are, because bee stings hurt! But here s something to remember. Bees die after they use their stinger. No self-respecting bee is going to give up its life just to be nasty. Bees only sting when they think they are going to be killed! Nothing makes a bee think its about to be killed more then a human waving his or her arms and hopping all over the place! If you see a bee, scream if you want - bees are deaf, but stay as still as possible! The bee will go away as soon as it decides it s not in danger. 14 What the BUZZ?!
HELP THE HONEY BEES NC Beekeepers Association Honey Bee Puzzle 5
5 Senses A Look at Insect Communication There s food over here! I like you! WATCH OUT Even without a voice, insects use all five senses to talk. SOUND: Some insects make sounds to attract other insects. While humans can hear crickets and cicadas, many insects make supersonic sounds that are above a person s range of hearing. These supersonic sounds have more then 20,000 vibrations each second! Sound can be made during normal activities of insects, such as eating or flying. Male and females of some mosquitoes are attracted to each other by the sound of their buzzing wings. The rubbing of body parts together to make sound is known as stridulation. Grasshoppers rub their legs against their wings to make sound. Can you think of other insects that might do this? SIGHT: Several kinds of flies and beetles can make light. Fireflies (lightning bugs) are actually beetles that can make flashes of light. The male and female fireflies use different codes of flashes to find and recognize each other. Each species of firefly has a different kind of flash pattern. Many butterflies, flies and other insects use colors for visual communication. Males of some flies have bright spots on their wings. They communicate with females during courtship dances by flitting their colorful wings. Some butterflies have patterns of ultraviolet color on their wings, which people can t see without special scientific tools. Some insects have bright red or orange colors that are exposed only when they are threatened by a predator. For example, if a lubber grasshopper is disturbed, it will flash its bright red hindwings. The sudden display of bright red may scare the predator and give the grasshopper time to escape. SMELL & TASTE: Pheromones are chemicals secreted by an insect to communicate. Insects secrete pheromones to attract other insects to mate. Pheromones may also be secreted to mark territory or as a call for help. Trail pheromones are used by many ants, caterpillars and other insects as a road map for finding food. After the ant finds some food, it will find its way home using this trail. Others will follow the trail to the food source. Have you noticed how ants always march single file? Some insects use allomones, or defensive chemicals, to protect themselves from attacks. Stink bugs have a very unpleasant odor to people. These chemicals can be very painful and even cause temporary blindness if they are squirted into the eyes of birds or people. TOUCH: Most touching involves the antennae and mouth parts, but not much information is passed by this form of communication. Touching can be used for recognizing nest mates, especially those that live in darkness. Mole cricket mother s recognizes her nymphs in a dark burrow by touching them with her antennae and even picking them up with her mouth parts. Social insects, like ants, often stroke and groom each other with their antennae and mouth parts. Honey bees perform a waggle dance to communicate with other bees, giving exact directions with its movements. Bees also make a very specific pulsing sound when it dances, telling other bees how far to fly Mississippi State University It is said that the chirping of a cricket brings good luck to all that hear. Websites that will drive you buggy! Insects.org bugfacts.net bugguide.net 6 5 Senses
fact Or Fiction Spiders, insects, ticks and all other creepy crawlies are bugs. FICTION! We use the term bug to describe just about any creeping, crawling invertebrate we encounter. In the true entomological sense, a bug is something quite specific- a member of the order Hemiptera. Cicadas, aphids, hoppers, and stink bugs are all bugs. Spiders, ticks, beetles, and flies are not. Insects try to attack people. FICTION! Kids are sometimes afraid of insects, especially bees, because they think the insects are out to hurt them. It s true that some insects bite or sting people, but it isn t their intent to inflict pain on innocent children. Bees sting defensively when they feel threatened, Other insects like mosquitoes are just looking for a meal! Small insects with wings are baby insects that will grow up to be adults. FICTION! If an insect has wings, it s an adult, no matter how tiny it might be. Insects only grow as nymphs or larvae. Winged insects have already reached their adult size and will not grow any larger. If a bug is in the sink or tub, it came up from the drain FICTION! Insects don t hide in our plumbing, waiting for an opportunity to pop out and scare us. Our homes are dry environments, and insects and spiders seek out moisture. They are attracted to humid environments in our bathrooms and kitchens. Once an insect slips down the slop of a sink or bathtub, it has a hard time crawling back up and ends up stranded near the drain. A spider is not really an insect FACT! A spider is an arachnid Flies have thousands of eyes FICTION! Flies have only 2 eyes. However each of those eyes is made up of many lenses, so when they see things, they see multiple versions. Just like when we look at things through a kaleidoscope Bees gather honey from flowers. FICTION! Flowers don t contain honey, they contain nectar. Honey bees convert that nectar into honey. The bee forages on flowers, storing nectar in a special honey stomach and then carrying it back to the hive. There, other bees take the regurgitated nectar and break it down into simple sugars using digestive enzymes. The modified nectar is then packed into the cells of the honey comb. Bees in the hive fan their wings on the honeycomb to evaporate water out of the nectar. The result? HONEY! FACT OR FICTION 7
Ant, Ant, Ant! An Insect Chant April Pulley Sayre Illustrated by Trip Park Insects: Revised and Updated Clarence Cottam Herbert S. Zim Bugs Joan Richards Wright Illustrated by Nancy Winslow Parker Caterpillars, Bugs & Butterflies Mel Boring The Best Book of Bugs Claire Llewellyn About: The Garden Time Kid s Club meets about once a month for exclusive kid friendly events. Not signed up? Stop by the store or email kids.club@gardentimeinc.com. Some of the other benefits include a free monthly gift, newsletters and a birthday surprise! Events are announced in the local newspaper as well as on our website, on our Facebook page and in our e-mails. Sign up today! GARDEN TIME 518.793.8555, Queensbury, NY 802.747.0700, Rutland, VT www.gardentimeinc.com