The Chicago Field Museum is one of the biggest and coolest natural history museums in the world. Let’s take a fun journey behind the scenes to discover some amazing creatures!
Have you ever heard of katydids? They’re like grasshoppers and are part of a group called Orthoptera, which also includes crickets. These katydids come from Papua New Guinea and are much bigger than the ones you might see in North America. They have huge wings and look just like giant leaves! This clever disguise helps them hide from predators.
Did you know that locusts are actually a type of grasshopper? Sometimes people mix them up with cicadas, but they’re not the same. Locusts are just big grasshoppers!
These katydids are experts at looking like leaves. When they rest, they fold their wings and look like dead leaves, complete with leaf veins and even spots that look like leaf diseases. This helps them blend in perfectly with their surroundings.
Spotting these insects in the wild can be tricky because they blend in so well. The best way to find them is to wait until they fly. Otherwise, they just look like part of a twig!
Another incredible insect is the giant walking stick from Malaysia. It’s the largest insect on the planet and looks like a long stick. Imagine seeing one of these in the wild!
At the museum, there are also tiny beetles called feather-winged beetles. Their wings look like feathers, and they’re some of the smallest beetles you’ll ever see. Scientists collect them using traps to study them closely.
One of the most fascinating moths is the death’s head moth. It has a skull-like pattern on its back and can sneak into beehives by pretending to be a friendly bumblebee. To collect moths, scientists hang a sheet with a light behind it, attracting the moths to the sheet.
While tarantulas might seem scary, the tarantula hawk is even more fearsome. This insect has a powerful sting that paralyzes tarantulas, allowing it to lay an egg inside. The larva then eats the spider from the inside out!
Insects can also live on other animals as ectoparasites. These include fleas, lice, and mites that live on mammals. There’s even a special fly called a bat fly that lives on bats. By studying these parasites, scientists can learn about the relationships between different species of bats.
Isn’t it amazing how much we can learn from insects? They have incredible adaptations and play important roles in their ecosystems. The Chicago Field Museum is a treasure trove of knowledge about these fascinating creatures!
Imagine you’re a katydid trying to hide from predators. Use paper, markers, and scissors to design your own leaf mimic insect. Think about how you can make it look like a real leaf with veins and spots. Share your creation with the class and explain how it helps your insect blend into its environment.
Start an insect observation journal. Spend some time outside and try to spot insects like katydids, grasshoppers, or beetles. Draw what you see and write down notes about their behavior and appearance. Compare your findings with classmates to see the diversity of insects in your area.
Get into groups and role-play a food chain involving insects from the article. You could be a katydid, a predator, or even a plant. Act out how these creatures interact in their ecosystem and discuss the importance of each role in maintaining balance in nature.
Imagine you’re a curator at the Chicago Field Museum. Design a new exhibit about one of the insects mentioned in the article. Create a poster or a model that highlights the insect’s unique features and adaptations. Present your exhibit to the class and explain why it’s important for people to learn about this insect.
Choose an insect from the article and research more about its adaptations. How do these adaptations help it survive in its environment? Create a short presentation or a digital slideshow to share your findings with the class. Include interesting facts and images to make your presentation engaging.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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The Chicago Field Museum is one of the largest and most respected natural history museums in the world. Join me as we go behind the scenes!
These are huge. They’re bigger than birds. They’re katydids from Papua New Guinea. It’s like a grasshopper in the order Orthoptera. In this order, there are katydids, grasshoppers, and crickets.
– So what about locusts? Are they…?
– A locust is a grasshopper; it’s a large grasshopper.
– I’m just trying to categorize them. It’s a common name.
– Most people call cicadas locusts too, but they’re not.
– Okay, so it’s just the grasshoppers that are locusts.
These are probably the largest katydids you’ll find. I mean, they’re gigantic! The katydids in North America are much smaller.
– Wow, this is over twice as long!
– With huge wings. They have a shield that looks like a leaf, so the whole thing is to mimic a leaf.
– It definitely looks like a giant leaf. We also have mantids that look like leaves. When an insect copies a leaf, it’s usually a green leaf to look alive, but there are exceptions.
This is the top side, right?
– Yes. When they’re at rest, they fold their wings and look like a dead leaf. These guys have taken it to a whole new level. They have the veins of a leaf and even rust spots and diseases like a dead leaf.
– Wow, they really mimic their host plant!
How do you find these in the wild?
– You wait until they fly.
– Really? You wouldn’t notice them if they were on a twig.
This is the underside.
– Isn’t that amazing? Even the tails look like a stem.
– Looking like a leaf is great camouflage, but looking like sticks is too.
This is the largest insect on the planet—the giant walking stick. This one is from Malaysia.
– It’s huge!
We joke around a bit here. It says “more than seven feet,” but that seems a bit implausible.
– Really? These things can be bigger than seven feet?
You have the credentials being in a museum; you could say anything and people would believe you.
– Yes, exactly.
And are these insects too? I can’t even see what’s in here; they look like tiny dots.
– Those are probably some of the smallest beetles you’ll find. They’re called feather-winged beetles because their wings look like feathers. We have a huge collection of these that one of our curators collected.
How do you collect these?
– We use traps and get a variety of specimens, then sort out what we want to study.
That’s a death’s head moth over there!
– Yes, it has a skull on its back. The impression is supposed to look like a giant bumblebee. They can enter hives and either give off a smell or make a sound that makes the other bees think they’re friends.
The way to collect moths is to hang a sheet and put a light behind it. The moths come to the sheet, and you photograph them.
– Certain times of the year, they can cover your sheets!
These are the tarantula hawks. Some people are afraid of tarantulas, but they should really be afraid of tarantula hawks.
– See the stinger? That’s where the venom comes through. It doesn’t kill the spider right away; it paralyzes it, and then they lay an egg inside. The larvae start eating the spider from the inside out.
Insects are found everywhere, including on other insects. We have a huge ectoparasite collection.
– Ectoparasite meaning what?
– If a mammal is collected, you can comb its fur and find fleas, lice, and mites.
There’s a fly that lives on bats called a bat fly. Many of them are wingless and move like little crabs through the fur of the bats.
– We collect them because researchers can identify them and find how different species of bats are related based on their ectoparasites.
As ectoparasites evolve, their relationships reflect the relationships among their hosts.
– It’s like networking, like social networking.
– Totally like networking.
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This version removes informal language and clarifies some points while maintaining the essence of the conversation.
Katydids – Katydids are insects that are known for their long antennae and are related to grasshoppers and crickets. – Example sentence: Katydids are often heard at night, making a distinctive sound that is part of the summer chorus in many ecosystems.
Locusts – Locusts are a type of grasshopper that can form large swarms and are known for their ability to consume vast amounts of vegetation. – Example sentence: When locusts swarm, they can cause significant damage to crops, affecting food supplies in many regions.
Cicadas – Cicadas are insects known for their loud, buzzing calls, which are often heard during the summer months. – Example sentence: The sound of cicadas is a familiar part of the summer landscape, as they emerge from the ground to mate and lay eggs.
Insects – Insects are small animals with six legs, a body divided into three parts, and usually two pairs of wings. – Example sentence: Insects play a crucial role in ecosystems as pollinators, decomposers, and a food source for other animals.
Beetles – Beetles are a group of insects with hard wing cases that cover their flying wings. – Example sentence: Beetles are incredibly diverse, with thousands of species adapted to different environments around the world.
Moths – Moths are insects closely related to butterflies, usually active at night and attracted to light. – Example sentence: Moths are important pollinators, visiting flowers at night and helping plants reproduce.
Tarantula – A tarantula is a large, hairy spider that is often found in warm climates and is known for its burrowing habits. – Example sentence: Despite their fearsome appearance, tarantulas are generally harmless to humans and play a role in controlling insect populations.
Parasites – Parasites are organisms that live on or inside another organism, called a host, and benefit by taking nutrients at the host’s expense. – Example sentence: Parasites can affect the health of their hosts, but they also play a role in controlling populations within ecosystems.
Ecosystems – Ecosystems are communities of living organisms interacting with each other and their physical environment. – Example sentence: Forest ecosystems are home to a wide variety of plants and animals, each playing a role in maintaining the balance of nature.
Adaptations – Adaptations are special features or behaviors that help an organism survive in its environment. – Example sentence: The thick fur of polar bears is an adaptation that helps them stay warm in the freezing Arctic climate.
