Scientific Observations

One day last week, while cleaning up from breakfast, Hoss discovered this guy sitting on the window outside of our kitchen. 



Hoss grabbed a plastic food container, captured this guy, and brought him in. I think he figured he was probably not fully alive - which was a WRONG assumption, by the way - and wanted to preserve the body. He put a lid on it, and for a while this huge moth didn't move a hair ( pun intended ). LM took this time to observe every detail she could about the outward appearance, and recorded them for keeping. 

(which my phone has apparently turned sideways for me)

Then it got interesting, when all of a sudden - he woke up. Then, we heard nothing but frantic wing beating through this container. We let him go, but not before we would at least figure out that what we had found was a 'Waved Sphinx Moth'. We finally found our moth here, where you can find a good description of this type of moth. They all loved to watch his movements, feel how soft the wings were, and see it go in spurts of very active flying, to not moving it at all. I had to act mercifully and tell the kids to let it go, so that it would survive, and remind Hoss that it's not okay to preserve a moth if you have to first deprive it of life. 

He (or she - something else to look up, maybe?) did make for some good scientific observations, though. :) Education is where we find it - not always where we are given it without some work.


Comments

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks! I am trying to treasure the tidbits of learning that aren't prompted or otherwise prepared by myself, and remind myself all the time that it's okay for learning to spontaneously happen, especially when we are very busy!

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