Leaving Something Behind

One of the Junior Ranger programs that has been a big hit is our "Bring a Bug" program where we ask the kids to catch an insect (or several) and bring them to be identified.

The park has a small "Butterflies of the World" display that has a few mounted butterflies, but nothing from the local area. So Teri and I set out this summer to collect and mount some insects from here in the park so that we'd have a "proper" insect collection to show folks.

Insect Collection

We started a little too late to get some of the bigger butterflies, but ended up with a nice selection of different insects.

Dragonfly

We found a dragonfly nymph casing floating in the lake, and are pleased to be able to show folks what they look like for the first part of their life!

Beetles

Beetles are common here and we collected several representatives.

About the time that I thought we wouldn't be able to collect a good butterfly, Teri found this one on the grill of the truck. It was still (slightly) alive, so it hadn't been there for long!!

The park is planning a Discovery Room for folks to be able to use during the weekdays when there are no interpretive programs, and we hope that our insect collection will be displayed there.

Mark