insects and frost - an a simple experiment showing that insects are cold-blooded

On Tuesday, the girls noticed this guy sitting on our front screen. He is a quite large moth - about an inch and a half wide. His underside shows a bit of orange, which flashed brightly when he flew. His topside, however...

was designed to help him blend in with tree bark (I converted it to black and white because I think the detail is clearer - he was in shades of tan, grey, and charcoal).

When he flew, he was very noisy. You could hear his wings beating with almost a humming noise. He wasn't at all quiet and airy like say...a butterfly.

Today, we went for a walk to look for insects for zoology. We found this butterfly with similar camouflage to the moth from yesterday (or is this perhaps a moth, the body looks more moth like). I would not have seen this beautiful insect if it had not been for his rather severe injury.

Because of the missing wing, I spied the orange coloration and found him. Actually, he most likely is a butterfly; notice the antennae with the blob on the end. In addition, he holds his wings up above him when at rest.

I have found that compound eyes are very difficult to photograph.

Notice how this moth on my sunflower holds his wings? It is interesting to go out at night and watch the moths feed on the sunflowers (this was taken during the day - seems sunflowers are good for napping).

We cut open a gall today and saw the larvae of the wasp inside of it.

Disappointed Entomologist

During our walk, I photographed some beautiful flowers and plants.

We also captured a dragonfly and put in the refrigerator for a short while before we took it out and let it warm up and re-released it (so that we could study what happens to a cold blooded creature when it is cold). Holding a dragonfly on your hand while it warms up is one of the coolest things. The sensation as they flutter their wings really fast is quite delicate and fascinating.

It is supposed to freeze tonight and the bees are very busy on my sunflowers.

This afternoon, K and I covered my tomato plants. It brought out all the nurturer in her. She sang to the plants and was very careful to see that they were completely covered. She told me when I kissed her goodnight that she had fun covering the tomatoes with me.