This reminded me of a baby blue belly that we had once kept as a pet for about a year or so. His name was ‘Brownie’ and he was very pampered. He apparently was an avid baker, especially around the holidays, and even enjoyed getting his portrait taken as a Christmas gift for his loving owner (my daughter):

Disclaimer: No animals were injured for this photo shoot and subject was duly compensated with an abundance of crickets.

Larger View HERE

Larger View HERE

Many North Americans think all bees are honeybees. Little Miss Apis Mellifera here is a (non-native) Western honeybee just like the domesticated ones that were first brought to the New World by European colonists in the 1600s. Unlike Miss Apis Mellifera, there are actually about 4,000 species of bees that are native to the United States. There are more kinds of bees than there are birds and fish put together! Our native bees are valuable crop pollinators – scientists estimate that native bees perform as much as $6.7 billion worth of pollination annually in the United States. More on native pollinators HERE and HERE.

An introduction to scientific classification or taxonomy can be as easy as remembering ‘King Philip Came Over For Good Spaghetti’ (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species). For the bug enthusiast, a personalized fact file of bugs that live around the house helps greatly in the learning and memorizing of the different classifications (and a little anatomy while you’re at it). I think it would be less interesting (especially for children) to begin from a manual of bugs that one has never and may never meet. Moths are a nice starting point because everyone has them, one can attract them at night with the porch light, and their faces are so cute and furry.