JACOB'S AND LACHLAN'S BUG

Yesterday i saw a bug when i was cleaning up with lachlan. I don't no what it is. It is very interesting.

CAN YOU HELP JACOB IDENTIFY THIS INSECT?

LEAVE A COMMENT WITH YOUR IDEAS.

BRYCE'S PET

Now that you know the CLUE to telling the difference between a STICK INSECT and a PRAYING MANTIS is to look at the 'front legs', have a look at BRYCE'S PET.

It lives in a tree in his yard.

Can you see it?

It's really well camouflauged!

Look closely at it's 'FRONT LEGS'.

GO TO Brisbane Insects.com.

Look again at the pictures of STICK INSECTS and PRAYING MANTIDS.

WHAT IS IT?

LEAVE US A COMMENT.

DON'T FORGET TO GIVE US A REASON FOR YOUR ANSWER.

AND THE ANSWER IS.....

PRAYING MANTIS!

A LARGE BROWN MANTIS!

Here is the email we got from Mr Chew at

BrisbaneInsects.com

Hi, 1M class,

Thank you very much for the email. The insect in your photo was a Praying Mantis, and it was a Large Brown Mantis. More information can be found in my web page;
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_hoppers/BrownMantids.htm

One good way to tell if it is a Praying Mantis or Stick Insect is to look at its front pair of legs. All Praying Mantis have strong and spiny front legs. In your photo we can see the insect's pair of front legs are much thicker than its other legs. If you check carefully you may also see the spines.

The Praying Mantis is a predator which captures and feeds on other small insects. It uses its pair of strong spiny front legs to attack. A Stick Insect feeds on leaves and does not attack other insects. It does not need the front legs as a weapon.

Regards
Peter Chew
www.BrisbaneInsects.com

WERE YOU AN 'ACE' INVESTIGATOR?

DID YOU IDENTIFY OUR 'VISITOR' CORRECTLY?

MR CHEW FOR IDENTIFYING OUR 'VISITOR' AND TEACHING US ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STICK INSECTS AND PRAYING MANTIDS.

NOW WE ARE EXPERTS TOO! :D

IDENTIFYING OUR INSECT- THE PROCESS

Today we took on the role of ACTIVE INVESTIGATORS to find out just what type of insect our 'visitor' last Friday was.

We got onto the website BRISBANE INSECTS AND SPIDERS. Mrs P, Mrs McD and Mrs R read the information about STICK INSECTS and PRAYING MANTIS for us.

We looked at the pictures and compared them to ours.
Then we left a comment to share our thoughts about what the insect was .
We read all the comments. We tried to work out how many thought it was a STICK INSECT and how many thought it was a PRAYING MANTIS but it was hard because some people had left two comments!

So we decided to make a PICTURE GRAPH to record our DATA.
Each of us drew our face on a small square and glued it on a chart.

Now it was easy to see that most of the class thought our visitor was a PRAYING MANTIS.

We decided to number the squares so that we would not have to count them every time we looked at the graph.

We had to number them all the way to 22!

Now it was REALLY easy to see the results.

22 children in our class think our 'visitor' was a PRAYING MANTIS.

5 children in our class think it's a STICK INSECT.

Does this mean our 'visitor' WAS a PRAYING MANTIS?

WE THINK SO.

But to be sure we have emailed BRISBANE INSECTS AND SPIDERS and asked them to help us identify our insect friend.

DO YOU THINK THEY WILL AGREE WITH US...THAT IT IS A PRAYING MANTIS?

LET US KNOW IN A COMMENT. DON'T FORGET TO TELL US 'WHY?'.

LOOK WHAT HOPPED IN!

Last night a

grasshopper

hopped in while we were having dinner.

It flew onto the windowsill... it flew onto my sister's hat. I was screaming because it was SOOO close to my face!
Then it hopped up high onto the wall, right up in the corner
and it stayed there until the morning.

We took pictures, loaded them onto the computer and then saved them to my sister's USB and I brought it to school. Now they are ON THE BLOG!

(I forgot I could have EMAILED them to 1mgems@gmail.com)

by BRYCE :D

OUR LUNCHTIME VISITOR

at the visitor we had to our room today!
It was on the verandah ceiling outside our classroom.

We watched as it crept slowly along...one step, stop, sway....another step, stop, sway.

We wondered how it could walk upsidedown and not fall.

We straight way thought it was a STICK INSECT.

But is it?

Both of these insects are common to Brisbane. Both look like sticks.

THIS ONE IS A STICK INSECT.

THIS ONE IS A PRAYING MANTID.

Which one is our friend most like?

WE'RE NOT SURE. PLEASE HELP US DECIDE!

Click on each picture to learn more about STICK INSECTS and PRAYING MANTIDS.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS NOW?

LET'S US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK IN A COMMENT.