Once upon a time in a land far, far away,
Mother Nature began a magical journey to create a
perfect world.
Ew, these bugs I'm reading about are so
creepy. Yeah, insects,
creepy. I don't know. I think bugs are cool,
cool with all those scary legs and eyes,
yeah, and slimy wings so they can swoop down and bite you.
Yeah, cool. They're only doing what they're meant to do.
What they're meant to do. How so, Reggie?
Well, it says right here that insects are
very important to the environment, but how can something
so small and yucky be so important to the environment?
Well, I haven't read that far yet. I know someone who can
help us discover the answer. Ready, everyone.
Yeah I
bingo boys and girls.
I was just outside thinking about all the neat things Nauria offers us
every day, and I heard you call. What's up
guys? We were just reading about insects and
Reggie told us that they're important to the environment. Oh
they are Beth in many, many different ways.
Can you give us some examples, Ray Ray? Sure thing,
Reggie.
No
Hey boys and girls, did you know that insects are some of the world's
most fascinating creatures? Yep, it's true, and they can be
found everywhere in forests, jungles, grasslands,
deserts, swamps, ponds and streams, and
even inside of the bodies of other animals. Wow, that's
incredible, and there are millions of different species of insects in the world,
about 30 million of them, of which only 1 million is known to
science. We've got a lot to learn.
Insects can do some pretty amazing things. Did you know that
flies can taste with their feet? Hmm, it's true.
The fastest known insect is a dragonfly, and he can fly it over
30 miles an hour. The longest insect is a walking stick
which can grow to over 13 inches long. The heaviest insect in the
world is a Goliath. Africa and a big male
beetle can weigh up to 100 g. Wow, that's a really
big bug.
Oh
So Safari Kids, what did you think of that song?
It was great, Ray Ray, and it makes insects seem a lot
less creepy. I told you guys bugs and
insects weren't so bad.
It's time for a critter connection.
Scales and tails, feathery wings on the wind will
sail.
John, hey guys, like all of our animal friends that visit us here in the Criter
Connection, the nice people at the Lincoln Children's Zoo take good care of these
animals. Today we're here with John and his friend Colin and
their friend Link. Link is a panther chameleon.
John, why is he called a panther chameleon? Well, if you look
at him, Ray Ray very closely, he's got all these different color stripes on his
body. He's got red stripes and green stripes and blue dots, and so that
makes him kind of look like a panther or a big cat with
stripes and spots. And he's also a hunter too. He's a carnivorous
animal. How big do panther chameleons get? Ray
Ray Link is a full grown panther chameleon, and the
males are larger than the females, and when you stretch him out and stretch out his
long tail, he's about 17 inches long.
How what does he eat? Wonderful question. Link has
some great adaptations. He's got these wonderful eyes that
rotate and look for food all around him and then because he
moves so slowly, he's got a tongue that's so long it can
shoot out a foot in front of him and it's sticky on the end and it sticks on
the bug and pulls the bug back into his mouth so he can have a.
Neil John, what kind of an environment does he live in? You know what? They come
from the treetops. They come from tropical rainforests, and they're wonderful
climbers. They have special feet for grabbing on to
branches. There we go, and a special prehensile tail
too that's great for wrapping around branches and holding on.
See how well he climbs in on this branch like he would in the rainfall.
What do they change colors? Great question. Everybody thought that the
chameleons change colors to blend in with the foliage and the plants.
Actually they change colors depending on the temperature that they're
in, or maybe if there's another chameleon around. If there's a boy chameleon
round, he might get all puppy and change colors, or he might want to look different for
a girl chameleon. It all depends on the mood that he's in that. John,
a lot of the animals that we have on the Critic connection are endangered. Are
panther chameleons endangered? They're currently not
endangered, Ray Ray. Their habitat is and and a lot of people are
capturing them and taking them into the pet trade. So if we let them alone and leave their
habitat alone, the panther chameleon will always be with us.
OK, John and Colin, thank you for bringing your friend Link to meet with us
today on the Critic Connection. We'll see you next time.
Hello, that was an awesome critter connection.
Thanks, Kayla. All of our critter connections are great, aren't they
kids? Yeah. They teach us all about the
fascinating world of animals that we are lucky enough to share the
planet with just like the insects we were talking about
earlier, right? And I have a great project that you can
make at home or in school that will help you learn even more about
the wonderful world of insects do and show show
and do it's so funny. showing you
It's the Enviro doing show. Hi boys and girls and welcome to
today's Enviro Doin show project. This is a time when we learn how to
make things at home that either helps us to better understand science
or helps the environment. Today, boys and girls, we're
gonna make trading cards with fun facts about our
insect and arachnid friends.
To make this project you will need index
cards, pictures of insects and arachnids
fun facts about insects and arachnids,
scissors, glue, crayons, or
markers. The first step
is to collect and cut out pictures of insects and
arthropods from old magazines or
you can take pictures of our insect friends, but just
remember boys and girls, don't get too close.
Then have mom, dad, or your teacher help you to find fun
facts about our creepy crawly little friends. For
example, did you know that a butterfly's cage sensors are
located below their feet? Yep, it's true.
Now once you have the pictures, glue the pictures onto the
front of the index cards. After the glue dries,
turn the index card over and write the fun facts on the back of the
index card that matches the picture. For example,
if you have a picture of a spider, then your fun fact should be
about a spider. When you are finished,
now you're ready to share your fun fact cards with all
your enviroal friends. Making
fun back trading cards, it's that easy. Wanna
learn more? hm have mom, dad, or your teacher stick
around and I'll show them where they can get directions and activity
sheets do and show, show and do. It's so funny.
I see and viral doing show that was a really cool
doing show, Ray Ray and I'm learning a lot about
insects me too, and they're becoming
less scary all the time. Less scary is good,
but remember kids, like any creature or natural
habitat, you must always respect the world around you.
What do you mean, right, right? Mm, I
wonder.
I just love dragonflies. Ever since I was a
young panda, I've seen them as I strolled through the
gardens or explored the woods or sat by a pond,
and I know that if I sit very still,
I might just be lucky enough to have one land on me.
And when they land on me I get to look into their big eyes.
They're so colorful. Did you know that their eyes are
matched in beauty only by their long and delicate wings?
And when the light catches a dragonfly's wings just
right, the colors you can see are amazing.
Reds and oranges, yellows and greens,
blues and purples all blended together and reflecting
right back at me. Their long slender bodies are
so fragile, so I have to be very careful
not to hurt them, and I must be very still
so I don't scare them. But soon, just when I
get comfortable with them with a gentle flutter of their wings, they
fly back off into the sky wow, it would be
so cool to be a dragonfly. I just love
dragonflies.
Hi Ray Ray. Hi Spar kids. Look guys,
it's Jordan and Ethan. So what are
you two up to today? We've been really busy. Yeah,
we've been making something pretty cool. Is that a net?
You might say that, whatever it is, it sure is big.
You've got that right. Can you please show us?
Ethan, Jordan, why don't you each take a corner and lay it out on Mr.
Hawtree's floor.
Awesome, cool.
Amazing.
Wow, that's really big. Guys, tell us more about it.
Well, the buzz around Nigeria is that you're learning about insects
today. And Jordan and I have been making this out of string for an art
class in school. So we brought it by
to show you guys that's really neat, guys, can you please collect
it by its corners and carefully fold it back up? You're right,
right? Spider webs are made by
spiders, but did you know that spiders are not considered
insects? Right, right, right. Many people think of spiders
as insects, but actually they're classified in a separate category.
Spiders are part of a group called arachnids. Which also
includes scorpions, right arachnids differ by not having
antennae. Also, spiders have 8 legs while insects
have 6, and their bodies are segmented into 2 parts while
insects' bodies have 3 parts the head, the thorax,
and the abdomen.
Tree mail, tree mail.
And Oh, sorry.
Oh boy, let's see what we have today, deer and viral, pal.
My name is Tony. I work at the Insect Zoo at Omaha's Henry Dorley
Zoo, where individual microhabitats are home to
ants, spiders, scorpions, walking
sticks, mantids, centipedes,
roaches, beetles, and a host of other amazing
creatures. The lower level features two rooms used for rearing
butterflies and culturing insect colonies. I would really like to show
Ray Ray the insect zoo here at the Omas Henry Durley Zoo.
Your friend Tony. That sounds like a great place to visit,
Ray-Ray. Why don't you use the green screen to get there? And we'll stay here with
the kids in the house street and learn more while we watch you on the green screen.
That sounds like a great idea, guys. I'm headed for the Omaha Zoo's
insect house. I'll be back in a flash.
Tony, Tony, are you here? Yes, I'm
here. Hi Tony, thank you so much for your tree mail.
Wow, is this the insect zoo? Yes, it is, Ray Ray. Welcome
to Omaha, Nebraska. So Tony, how
many different types of insects are there in the world? There
are about 1.5 million species of insects in the
world. Tony, can you explain to the boys and girls
at home what exactly are insects? Yes, sir,
I can explain. Uh, I'll, I'll use a prop here, an example.
Here I have a, uh, South American giant cave cockroach.
It has 6 legs. It has
3 body parts, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
It's got. 4 wings.
And it's got 2 antennae and 2 compound eyes.
Do insects have 5 senses? Uh, yeah, the insects have
5 senses. Um, they, uh, they're kind of funny
though because they smell the air
with their antenna. They don't have any noses. They use their antenna to smell the
air and they feel with their antenna.
And they taste with their antenna and also their mouth
parts and they do have a real good sense of touch which most of that touch
sensory is in their legs and their antenna as well.
And some insects do have ears, but others don't
really hear that well. They just feel the vibrations in the ground.
Tony, are insect social animals, I mean, do they
have other insect friends? Well, Ray Ray, most
insects like to live on their own, like the Atlas beetle.
It really likes to live by itself, but there are insects that
live in in social groups like bees,
wasps, ants, and some beetles also live in
in social groups. Tony, unfortunately,
a lot of the animals we have on the enviro pelt are endangered,
are insects endangered? Yes, Ray Ray. Most
people don't think that insects can become endangered because they
reproduce at such a high rate, but there are over 700
species of insects in the world that are endangered.
Wow, I didn't realize that.
Tony, I've always wondered, are spiders and
scorpions insects? No, Ray Ray,
uh, spiders and scorpions are, uh, what we like to call
arachnids. This, uh, Chilean rose hair tarantula here,
as you can see, she only has two body parts.
And she has 8 legs.
So she has 2 more legs and 1 less body part than the insects. She
also never has wings. She
has paired uh fangs or
calcara, and she has these cool spinnerets on the
back where she produces her web.
Is that a scorpion? Uh, yeah, Ray, I brought a scorpion. Um,
this is the, uh, flat rock scorpion.
From Africa and Madagascar, uh, this guy has
the head here and the thorax.
Here Um, the thorax is extended out
into the, the tail with the stinger.
He also has 8 legs there and the, uh,
The neat thing about scorpions is all true scorpions will glow
a bluish green color underneath of an ultraviolet light.
Wow, that sure was interesting learning about insects today, but it's
getting late and I have to get back to Nigeria. I can't wait to tell all
my friends about the insect zoo here at the Omaha Henry Darley Zoo.
OK, I better get going. Bye, Tony.
Bye. See you next time. Should be.
The insect house of the Omaha Zoo seemed fascinating. I thought it was
very interesting to see those big rare insects. Some of them
were almost big enough to live in our giant web. You're right, Ethan
and Jordan. It's always a great adventure getting to learn new things.
You know, Ray Ray, we'd better get back to finishing our art project. Yeah, we
should get going. It's getting pretty late. OK guys, thanks for sharing
your giant spider web art project with us today. See you again
soon. Bye. Bye. Bye,
Ethan. Jordan. Bye guys.
4 wings and.
Has been
Was
Has been OK guys like us.
Each insect is made up of three main body parts
the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The
head is where you'll find the insects' large compound eyes
which allow the insects to see all. It's also
where you'll find the antennas or the feelers so they can.
sense the world around them.
Right
4 wings and eggs.
Has these.
Oh
Has these. The next section is the thorax.
Now the thorax is the middle section.
Insects 6 legs, 3 on each side, and if the insect.
This is where you'll find them. Usually it'll have a.
Front and a bigger wing in the back now like on a grasshopper,
these wings will fold back when the grasshopper's not.
Last section is the abdomen and it has tiny holes called
spiracles.
Has these. Now we know the three different
body parts of an insect. Yes, the head, the
thorax, and the abdomen. Would you like to know what I
think? Good. Then I'll tell
you, I think insects are a lot like ice
cubes. Ice cubes, Mr. Leo, we were talking about
the three main parts of an insect. Exactly.
ice cubes have 9 sides. That's why they
call them cubes. Mr. Leo, what's that got
to do with insects? Exactly. What
are you questioning my ability to reason? Surely, we would
never do that, Mr. Leo.
Mr. Leo,
Hand cut. Hey you
guys out there, it sure was fun learning about our friends the insects
today. Insects have so many important functions in our ecosystem.
They pollinate blossoms, aerate the soil, and control insects
and plant pests. Burrowing insects like ants and beetles dig
tunnels that provide channels for watering the roots of plants. And all
insects fertilize the soil with the nutrients from their droppings.
You can help insects the most by simply leaving them alone to do
their job. Remember, boys and girls, if I do my
part and you do your part and your friends do their part, we can
really make a difference. It's that easy,
bingo. Yeah
Kids, what was your favorite part of today? My favorite part was
the doing show project. I liked the Tree male
adventure. I really like singing all the songs.
So remember everyone, we want you
to join me on the E Team.
Boys and girls, we And on the viral.
If you, your parents, or your teachers would like to know more about our environment
tips, lesson plans, greater connections, doing show activities,
teacher's guides, or any other environmental materials, just visit
our website at enviroals.org and click on our