Great Entomology Resource- with images!

I often get questions on where to go for images of insects to help people with identification. While field guides are a good idea, not everyone wants to have piles of insects books laying around like me.

The 4-H Entomology website is a wonderful resource for not only 4-H participants, but the general public. While the site is targeted for 4-H Entomology students, there is a link to a list of common insects you can find in your own backyard well as while you travel throughout the state.

The guide to insect and non-insect orders is really cool because you can learn how to pronounce all those scientific names (it's an interactive pdf file- waaay cool!) and find out information on biology and characteristics.

Another great feature is a link to insect collecting videos. No, this isn't people collecting insects, but videos that show you how to do things like how to use an aspirator, choosing the correct net, pinning insects, etc. It's a great how-to section for those of you who want to start insect collecting as a hobby or start a reference collection to utilize as a teaching tool.

The Legend of the Christmas Spider

Years ago someone, if I remember correctly my mother, bought a spider ornament for my Christmas tree. It came with a book that tells the Legend of the Christmas Spider. Here is the story.

A long, long time ago, a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year ... Christmas Day. Not a speck of dust was left anywhere. Even the little spiders had been banished from their cozy corner high up on the ceiling. To avoid the housewife's busy cleaning, they finally fled to the farthest corner of the forgotten attic.

Finally, it was Christmas Eve. The tree was decorated and the children delighted. But the poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor be present for the magic of the season. The oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could wait until everyone had gone to bed and then sneak through the crack in the door to see the wonders of the tree. The little spiders silently and carefully came down out of their attic corner and across the floor to wait in the crack on the threshold.

Pretty soon all was quiet, so the spiders quickly crept into the room. The tree towered so high that they couldn't see the ornaments on top. In fact, the little spiders' eyes were so small that they could only see one ornament at a time. They all scurried up the trunk, out along each branch, filled with a happy wonder at the glittering beauty. The spiders loved the Christmas tree. All night long, they danced in the branches, and every place they went left a trail of dusty, gray web. When at last they had inspected every bit of the Christmas tree, it was shrouded in the dusty gray of spider webs.

Santa smiled as he thought of the happy spiders seeing the tree and how much they liked it, but he also thought of how sad the mother would be over the dusty tree. He reached out his hand and touched the tree just as the sun came in the window. All the webs started to sparkle and shine turning into shimmering, sparkling silver and gold. The tree glistened in greater beauty than ever before!

While we need to overlook some of the biological information, it's still a nice story for the holidays. I personally think everyone should have a spider ornament on their tree- not because of the legend of the Christmas spider, but just because spiders are cool! Happy holidays!

Ladybug video

For those of you who couldn't view the ladybug video, here's a link that will take you to You Tube to watch it there:

Ladybug video