Walker Nature Education Center
A look inside • Wildlife Counts 3 • Calendar of Events 4 • Kid’s Corner 6 • Banned Invasive 7
Branching Out
Nature Notes Lifetime of By Sharon Gurtz
June
a Summer
By Ken Rosenthal
• Bullfrogs are calling. • Black Rat Snakes lay eggs. • White-tailed Deer fawns are born. • Black-eyed Susan, Butterfly Weed and Common Milkweed bloom.
July • Tent Caterpillar moths emerge from cocoons. • Monarch and Red Admiral butterflies arrive. • Jewelweed, Wild Bergamot and Cardinal Flower bloom. • Cicadas buzz.
August • Copperhead snakes give birth to live young. • Stonecrop, Blazing Star and Goldenrod bloom. • Squirrels begin cutting hickory nuts. • Fall bird migration begins.
Summer is a time of recreation, a favorite of schoolchildren who enjoy a respite from homework and grades. I look forward to summer, to time spent with friends and family and to finishing projects I have set for myself. For insects and their relatives, however, summer is the only time. It is the most active and important segment of what is a very short lifetime. Metamorphosis - The great change
Insects go through a series of physiological changes to reach adulthood. The two best-known examples are simple and complete metamorphosis. Simple metamorphosis is the type of development
employed by grasshoppers. An egg hatches, producing a larva that looks just like a miniature adult. The grasshopper increases in size through 6 to 10 molts, and eventually grows wings, the sign of a mature adult. This type of metamorphosis is closest to how we humans develop, although without the hassle of molting. Other insects go through complete metamorphosis. The larva that hatches from an egg looks nothing like the adult. A larva’s job is simple: eat and get bigger. The caterpillar of the Monarch butterfly Continued on page 2
Summer 11
Volume Thirteen