Meet the Neighbors: A Differential Grasshopper For the introduction to this series, see here. I found this grasshopper on one of our pepper plants. The best way to identify this species is the striking pattern on its legs. This grasshopper species can be many colors though they usually have the same pattern. Differential grasshoppers live …
Science Snippet: Explore Saturn Saturn is currently 824 million miles from the Earth. Over the next few weeks, it will come within 816 million miles before receding again. For Saturn, this is fairly close; at times, it is more than a billion miles away! Still, 824 million miles is a very long distance. In my …
Meet the Neighbors: A Transverse Ladybug For the introduction to this series, see here. Here is a Transverse Ladybug dining on some of the abundant aphids in my backyard. I was very happy to see this species as it has been declining rapidly and may soon be an endangered species. I am glad that my …
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp For the introduction to this series, see here. I noticed this big beautiful wasp in my yard for the first time this year. These solitary wasps hunt stink bugs including the invasive Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. (Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs are originally from Asia.) …
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What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: Sutured Long-horned Beetle For the introduction to this series, see here. This bright red and black beetle loves to eat pollen. These beetles are easy to watch because they like to sit on big flat flowers and are slow-moving and not easily alarmed. They belong to the large …
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What’s In My Backyard? Projects: Pressing Plants For the introduction to this series, see here. Today we are going to press plants and make an herbarium. An herbarium is a collection of dried pressed plants mounted on stiff paper. Herbariums are useful to showcase the plants of a certain location. Often scientists can learn a …
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: American Lady Butterfly For the introduction to this series, see here. Meet the American Lady Butterfly. This butterfly looks like the closely related Painted Lady Butterfly. How do you tell them apart? The secret is to look at the outside of the wings. American Ladies have two large …
What’s In My Backyard? Meet the Neighbors: GoldFinch For the introduction to this series, see here. Here is one of the brightest birds that might visit your yard. Goldfinches love sunflower seeds; if you plant sunflowers, they may become regular visitors. In winter the males lose their bright yellow plumage and become a much drabber …
What’s In My Backyard? Explore and Learn: endangered species For the introduction to this series, see here. When many people think of endangered species, they think about animals like Giant Pandas, Hawksbill Sea Turtles, and Bornean Orangutans. All three of these creatures are in danger of extinction. What many people do not know is that …
Science Snippet: Explore The Moon What object in the solar system is closest to the Earth? The closest object is our moon. On average the moon is 238,900 miles away. That distance is almost ten times the circumference of the Earth. This sounds like a long way, but it’s close compared to the other objects …
