We found this little dung beetle crawling across our school bag, while we did some bookwork out under the trees. We discussed its shovel-shaped head, the jagged "spikes" on its legs and the striations on its wing covers. We wondered if it was native or introduced.
We discussed why dung beetles had been introduced to Australia when we already had native dung beetles (to deal with cow pats, and to reduce dung-dwelling flies - also introduced).
As a project for the future, we intend to download and install the Australian Museum's Fauna Keys program, to assist us in classifying this dung beetle and any others we find: http://keys.australianmuseum.net.au/dung_intro.htm
Finally, we turned it over so we could hear the "squeaking" noise it makes when it is stranded. We then gently turned it right way up and let it go off to do its job.
Next, we observed this very pretty spider. We hypothesised, based on its colour that it was most likely a flower spider. However, we have not yet managed to identify it.
We counted its legs, discussed how many it was supposed to have, and noticed that it was missing one leg. We brainstormed what might have happened to it. We observed other details and brainstormed their purpose, including the multiple eyes and the hairs on its body and legs.
Some time ago, Waratah captured a moth and released it into his mini world, where it laid eggs on the wall. We have been watching the eggs to see what happened. Today they hatched out tiny little caterpillars.
As we did not know what type of food the caterpillars would like, we left the mini world out in the garden until they were all gone, in the hope that they would find their favourite food source for themselves. It was very hard to observe the caterpillars as they were so tiny, approximately 5mm long.
Finally, here is part of our zucchini harvest. It is a good thing that Boronia and I love zucchini! We made soups and stuffed zucchinis, and with the boys' help, we made zucchini muffins, and chocolate zucchini cake, which they also helped us to eat.
