40x magnification of the head of the spittlebug nymph.
On the wildgrass-covered slope next to school, you can see a lot of these little foamy things, that look like spit, on the stalks of the tall grasses and herbs.
Spittlebug "spit" is mostly made of a froth of the plant's sap.
One of my students collected some to look at under the microscope. We thought it might be the collection of eggs of some creature. It turned out that, at the center of the foam, was what looked like an immature insect. A quick google search for “spit bugs” turned up froghoppers, whose nymphs create the spit to protect them from the environment (heat, cold) and hide themselves from predators.
They suck the sap of the plants they’re on, and can be agricultural pests.
Maggie E. has a wonderful eye for spotting small fauna. She found this mason wasp (Monobia quadridens) while we were weeding the Heifer Ranch’s herb garden. It had caught this caterpillar and was trying to take off with it. It was a difficult job – the caterpillar probably weighed as much as the wasp – but it finally managed to take it away.
The wasp found the caterpillar difficult to move.
According to the Atlas of Vespidae, these wasps prey on small moth caterpillars. Which is probably why they are usually found in open habitats with flowers; hence the herb garden.
They also use caterpillars to feed their larvae (Wikipedia, 2011). They’ll lay an egg in a cell of their nest and stick a paralyzed beetle larvae, spider or caterpillar in with the egg to feed the wasp larvae when it hatches.
References
The wasp finally managed to drag the caterpillar to the edge of the wooden bench before it could take off.
Identifying these wasps was not too hard. The first image in the google search for “wasp caterpillar” looked just like the bug we found, carrying almost the same type of caterpillar.
The image was from the wonderful “What is that bug?” where you can send in bug pictures and the author (Daniel Marlos) will try to identify them.
What’s That Bug referenced the BugGuide which gives the full taxonomic classification and a lot of information about habitat, food and life cycle that’s in an easily readable form.
Since we’re focusing on the life sciences this year I want to complete the nature trail. Part of this project is to catalog the biodiversity on the trail. I’d like to have students specialize on the different types of organisms we find. Undoubtedly, the Class Insecta will be well represented. The site, Entomology for Beginners is a great basic resource. It starts with very simple cartoons of insect parts but also has a great key to insect orders which walks you through the comparisons you need to make to identify the Orders in which a particular insect belongs.
A change of perspective can give the most amazing insights. I find macro photographs, particularly of insects, to offer a stunningly refreshing view of these nuisances. Luc Viatour, whose image is posted above, has some wonderful, copyright permissive, pictures.
Photography, with it extensive use of refraction and reflection is a great avenue to talk about waves and their properties. Macro photography can be quite effective at striking the imagination and getting into taxonomy and entomology.
