2. Living Laboratory Phacelia flowers Praying mantis Mealyworms
Cockroaches
Slugs
Worms
Wee beasties (Paramecium)

3. Phacelia flowers – grow in the spring in the classroom and plant out in summer
Purpose: provides pollen and nectar for beneficial insects which
prey on insect pests
Investigate:
insect visitors
compare pests in area
with/without phacelia

4. INSECT CLASSIFICATION:
Diptera, Flies
Coleoptera, Beetles
Phasmida, Stick-Insects
Dictyoptera, Cockroaches and Praying Mantids
Hymenoptera, Wasps, Ants and Bees
Lepidoptera, Butterflies and Moths

5. Praying mantis Orthodera novaezealandiae

6. Praying mantis egg case
Picture shows 11 eggs intact.
5-6 months in egg case (ootheca) until hatching in spring.
Case taken from warm north facing garage wall.

7. Food supply:
Nymphs: fruit flies (Drosophila spp.)
Adults: flies, wasps, bees, grasshoppers
Rear adults singly in ventilated container with water source and string across container for skin shedding / hanging by instars
Investigations:
Temperature for development
Orientation of ootheca on development

8. Mealyworms (Darkling beetles)
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Tenebrionidae
Genus and species: Tenebrio molitor

9. Egg-------Larva--------Pupa---------Adult 10-12 days 12-54 days
Egg Larva Pupa Adult days days days days moults creamy white to brown

10. Purchase from:. Pet store and bait shop (Animates) Feed with:
Purchase from: Pet store and bait shop (Animates) Feed with: bran, oatmeal, fresh oats, wheat bran. Sliced potato, carrot, apple (water source) Uses: Food source for reptiles, fish, wild birds, fishing bait Require: Ventilation and dark preference
Orientation experiments
Ranging – no knowledge about where to find resources
Local searching – more restricted search

11. Ranging and Local Searching
Place a bug in the centre of a piece of filter paper and moisten paper at radius of 10cms (leave dry gaps around radius)
If bug goes through gap re-position in centre.
Repeat with other bugs.
Results: Ranging occurs until moisture is detected and then localised searching begins.

12. Further ranging investigation:
Place bug on wooden object and use paintbrush to keep it moving along.
Note direction it turns
at T junction. Repeat
with same bug.
Repeat with 4 more
bugs.

13. NEXT.... Use the bend right + T junction
Try the bend left and T junction

14. Repeat with 20 bugs for each.
How many turn left after the right bend or right after the left bend?
Investigate the same with different starting orientation to light source.
Repeat with 4 more bugs.

15. Frogs http://www.nzfrogs.org/Resources/Kids+Information/Keeping+Frogs.html

16. Cockroaches: (cerci in both sexes)
Male (with stylets) Female (without)

17. American cockroach Periplaneta americana Native bush cockroach
Size range:
Large insect, up to 40 mm long
Distribution:
Originally from tropical America, found
in warmer parts of New Zealand A pest in heated buildings Life History:
Fast running Scavenger. Eats almost anything,
food scraps, paper, damp wood Unpleasant smell
Native bush cockroach
Celatoblatta spp.
Size range: up to 15 mm
Distribution: NZ native, about 15 species
Life History: Favours damp, dark habitat, wingless, not a household pest

18. TIP - Put into deep freeze to slow them down to transfer to other containers.
Investigations:
Leg movement in which order?
Life cycle and egg laying studies.
Dissection of gut

19. Slugs

20. Slug eggs:
Keep moist under soil and small rocks
Investigation:
Temperature for hatching

21. Worms:
Mixing the soil in a wormery

22. Worms:
Adults with clitellum (saddle)
Investigation:
Dollar value of earthworms
(worksheet

23. Protists and wee pond beasties.
Use dropper to take
liquid from leaf bases
of bromeliads (from
hot house Botanical
Gardens)
Transfer to container
and add straw.
(Protists feed on the
bacteria that rot the
straw)
Make sure the contents does not dry out.