Monday, September 28, 2009

Larva, Pupa, Ladybug

"Mommy! Mommy! I found the thing that a ladybug is before it's a ladybug that we saw in that book!"
That book would be the Handbook of Nature Study.

And that would be Caeden screaming.

And that would be me in shock since that was in the spring that we looked at it AND it was one of my worst memories of first grade nature journalism (nice word, huh? Journaling isn't a word according to Blogger spell check so I picked that one, it makes me sound smart...LOL). But, God makes all things new...so I followed the screaming boy.

And there on our toy pirate ship was indeed a ladybug larva. Ever seen one?Like any pirate on a ship, we captured it...for observation. We also captured 2 others in different larva stages but the poor things were eaten alive by the bigger one.

We gave it a leaf form our tree with aphids on it and we waited a few days and it hung itself upside down and became a pupa. Caeden was sure it was dead. I thought maybe he was right so we put it under the microscope and IT WAS MOVING! We could see the top of it's head {?} pulsating. Amazing. So we watched, and watched.
Wednesday afternoon more screaming ensued.
"The pupa hatched! The pupa hatched!"
Did you know that when ladybugs come out of the pupa they are yellow!?!?! They are. I might have shrieked a little too. No spots either! Just a yellow ladybug.So we left and went to dinner and when we came home....IT HAD SPOTS!!!!! Are you on the edge of your seats? You should go find a ladybug larva.

By Thursday morning, we had a red ladybug with spots.


1 comment:

Olive Tree said...

Hi, it's a great blog.
I could tell how much efforts you've taken on it.
Keep doing!