Category: butterflies (Page 19 of 43)

On Tap This Week: Butterfly Gardening With Children

Butterfly gardening has become an incredibly popular activity. It is so easy, because all it requires is a little space and a few carefully chosen plants. It can be an extremely rewarding activity to carry out with children, who can experience hands-on science at its best while learning about topics like pollination, insect life cycles, and weather. We are so excited about it that we are going to devote a week of blog posts to butterfly gardening with children.

butterfly-gardening-with-children

Our links:

We made it through the week!

Growing Resource List:

Please join us and feel free to add links to your own posts, any questions, or ideas for topics about butterfly gardening with children in the comments.

 

Bug of the Week: Baltimore Checkerspot Caterpillar

An insect from the archives…

Baltimore checkerspot larva-1This is a Baltimore checkerspot caterpillar I found a few years ago in western New York state.

Baltimore checkerspot caterpillar 4

As you can tell from the bright orange and black warning coloration, it is likely this species is chemically protected. How noxious a given caterpillar is, however, depends on whether it feeds on certain chemically-defended host plants.

Another species, Harris’ checkerspot, has caterpillars that are orange and black as well. They look very similar and are apparently mimics.

You can find photographs of Baltimore checkerspot host plants, life cycle, and a link to coloring pages at the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources.

Bug of the Week: Caterpillar Hatching Video

For a little change of pace, let’s check out some incredible work nature photographer Samuel Jaffe is doing with caterpillars and moths he raises himself.

Sam uses an USB microscope to display caterpillars onscreen during educational outreach events. Here is a video of Symmerista oak worm caterpillars hatching from eggs that he captured during one of these events.

Isn’t that amazing?

For his photographs, Sam uses black backgrounds to make the subjects look like they are suspended in space.

Related:
Samuel Jaffe’s website
The Caterpillar Lab FaceBook page

Our list of children’s books about moths and butterflies at Science Books for Kids

moth-and-butterfly-books-for-children-list

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