What It's All About
Arthropods are the most numerous animals on Earth, making up about 90 percent of the animal kingdom. This extremely diverse group of more than a million species includes insects, spiders, crayfish, crabs, water fleas, millipedes, butterflies, ants, and beetles.
Insects Versus Spiders
An insect's body has three parts: a head, a thorax (the middle part of the body), and an abdomen (the final third of the body). They all have six legs connected to their bodies at the thorax. You can remember which bugs are insects by remembering 3 + 3 = in6 (insects). Three pairs of legs and three body parts is an insect. Spiders have two body parts: the abdomen and the cephalothorax. They have eight legs connected to the cephalothorax.
You can catch insects and spiders in a small plastic bag that you've poked some small air holes into. Place the bugs inside, lay the bag gently on top of some white paper, and examine each bug with a magnifying glass. Release the bugs within thirty minutes so you don't harm them. For each bug, students can draw what it looks like and try to identify what type of bug it is.
The Amateur Entomologist Society is a great place to learn more about bugs. You can join the club and go online for educational information, including games and art projects. Go to www.amentsoc.org/bugclub. The organization is based in London and has been protecting bugs since 1935.
A Lot of Good a Bug Can Do
Crown the insects as kings and queens because they rule the world. Plants, fruits, vegetables, and flowers would not grow without insects to pollinate them. In addition, spiders provide people with silk, bees produce beeswax, and other bugs give us dyes from their scales. Insects also recycle natural wastes like dead plants, animal carcasses, and manure by eating and digesting these materials and turning them into beneficial fertilizers for healthy soil. Many birds, fish, and small mammals would starve to death if they did not have insects to eat.
Just as states have a state flower, most states have a state bug. What's your state bug? Where does it live? Is it endangered? If so, why? Does it have to compete with other bugs for food? Is it losing its habitat? How can you help protect it?
If all the good bugs were gone from the Earth, life would end as we know it. For example, bees pollinate more plants than any other insect, so if they disappeared from Earth we wouldn't have enough food. There would be great famines. Unfortunately, bees truly are disappearing. One way to better protect bees is to stop using pesticides. That means buying more organic food and not using pesticides on your own yard. A very good video called “Silence of the Bees” can be found at www.pbs.org/nature. Play it in class and then ask the kids to draw posters of bees pollinating. Write the words Protect Bees. Then choose from the following list of ways to protect bees.
Plant plants that bees like.
Don't use pesticides.
Give them a safe, protected habitat.
Plant vegetables and let some go to seed.
Become a beekeeper.
Are there other ways to help protect bees? There are so many solutions to all of the problems facing the Earth, and every single one is important. Do what you can. Then celebrate your efforts!
