November 28, 2009
November 28, 2009
In the newspaper this morning I read about a local group called SASI, the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute, having an open house today. The weather is cool and there is a chance for rain so we decide this might be a nice diversion. The facility is located down a long dirt road in the middle of the Saguaro-filled desert of Tucson Mountain Park. On the way Aimee asks what an arthropod is. I give her the scientific answer, explaining these are animals that have an external skeleton, like lobsters. I fail to tell her that all insects are also arthropods and that is what we are likely to see.
The afternoon session starts with an hour-long show and tell of the member’s pets. The first half is mostly innocuous beetles and beetle larvae. They are housed in plastic shoeboxes filled with corn meal. Or at least what used to be grain. Now much of it has been turned into fine sand the scientist explains is beetle droppings. Aimee is immediately grossed out when he says to feel free to dig in “the sand” to find and hold the larvae.
The show and tell moves on to creatures that nobody wants to hold, starting with scorpions. They have three that are long as your hand. Scary looking! Don’t want one of them crawling in the house. Next are a couple centipedes. These swift, armored carnivores are venomous and will eat small rodents and lizards. To demonstrate she throws crickets into the boxes so we can see them run down, captured and eaten. I make a mental note to remind Aimee to never leave the screen door open. At one point the centipede grabs onto the speaker's finger who then flicks it off… directly in Aimee’s direction. I never saw Aimee move so fast. Lastly several spiders and a couple tarantulas are displayed. Compared to the scorpions and centipedes, the tarantulas look pretty docile. If we buy a house, I am going to have to investigate how to attract roadrunners to keep our yard free of our local arthropod population.
The second session is a workshop on growing tobacco hornworms. All the kids are given a couple to raise into mature hawk moths. Interestingly if they are fed green leaves, the worms turn a brilliant green; if raised on wheat germ they are a translucent turquoise. I so wanted to join in the fun and bring one home but Aimee said I was too old. When I was young I wanted to be old; now old, I want to be young!
In the newspaper this morning I read about a local group called SASI, the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute, having an open house today. The weather is cool and there is a chance for rain so we decide this might be a nice diversion. The facility is located down a long dirt road in the middle of the Saguaro-filled desert of Tucson Mountain Park. On the way Aimee asks what an arthropod is. I give her the scientific answer, explaining these are animals that have an external skeleton, like lobsters. I fail to tell her that all insects are also arthropods and that is what we are likely to see.
The afternoon session starts with an hour-long show and tell of the member’s pets. The first half is mostly innocuous beetles and beetle larvae. They are housed in plastic shoeboxes filled with corn meal. Or at least what used to be grain. Now much of it has been turned into fine sand the scientist explains is beetle droppings. Aimee is immediately grossed out when he says to feel free to dig in “the sand” to find and hold the larvae.
The show and tell moves on to creatures that nobody wants to hold, starting with scorpions. They have three that are long as your hand. Scary looking! Don’t want one of them crawling in the house. Next are a couple centipedes. These swift, armored carnivores are venomous and will eat small rodents and lizards. To demonstrate she throws crickets into the boxes so we can see them run down, captured and eaten. I make a mental note to remind Aimee to never leave the screen door open. At one point the centipede grabs onto the speaker's finger who then flicks it off… directly in Aimee’s direction. I never saw Aimee move so fast. Lastly several spiders and a couple tarantulas are displayed. Compared to the scorpions and centipedes, the tarantulas look pretty docile. If we buy a house, I am going to have to investigate how to attract roadrunners to keep our yard free of our local arthropod population.
The second session is a workshop on growing tobacco hornworms. All the kids are given a couple to raise into mature hawk moths. Interestingly if they are fed green leaves, the worms turn a brilliant green; if raised on wheat germ they are a translucent turquoise. I so wanted to join in the fun and bring one home but Aimee said I was too old. When I was young I wanted to be old; now old, I want to be young!
posted by Mike and Aimee at 1:52 PM
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