God seems to be bringing us insects, so that's what we've been doing for nature study. We've had rolypolies, horseflies, some weird bug on my cucumbers and this odd assortment of critters:
a grapevine beetle:
tobacco hornworms (stripping the leaves off my poor tomato plant):
And our coolest find--a live cicada nymph! Jacob found it climbing near the chicken coop and came running in with it. We put it in our butterfly cage. It immediately climbed up the side and hung out. I (mistakenly) thought it would take a while. Within about 45 minutes, I noticed it had already changed shape. I gathered the children and we proceeded to watch the mature cicada emerge from the nymph. Really neat (although a bit yucky looking at times)!
These are in time order. Sorry, some are taken through the netting and didn't come out clear, but you can get a glimpse of the profile.
Definitely looks like something out of sci-fi movie!
Never dull around here, always something to learn and explore.
