We never found tadpoles this spring, and our first round of caterpillars in a jar didn't make it. So I'm happy to report that we had success with round 2. These critters came to us from my visiting teacher, who called me to see if Frankie wanted to collect some of the caterpillars that were decimating her grape vines. We helped her identify them as Western Grapleaf Skeletonizers. (Really.) If you ever see these friends in their caterpillar form, be careful: they have hairs on them that can break off and sting.
Here's the caterpillars, which I didn't get a good picture of, and a freshly hatched moth. A few of the moths we actually saw unfolding their wings and such. It was pretty cool. We probably shouldn't have let them go, being that they are garden pests and all, but they were so darn pretty we couldn't resist. A blue/purple incandescence to them.
Frankie with his jar (vase actually) of bugs.
This wasn't posed, he had just watched one take flight for the first time.
Letting a few more go the next night:
My little Entomologist. On Frankie's spotlight paper for Kindergarten, that's what he had me write in the "when I grow up I want to be:" space. I wish I could be in the classroom when they discuss that one.
p.s. Here is a great website we found for identifying insects, in case you want to be an Entomologist too: http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
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