1. About 1,000,000 (one million) species of insects have been named, but scientists estimate that there are millions more yet to be discovered. About half of all the species of insects are beetles.

Assassin bug

2. Spiders are some of the easiest creatures to find on a walk. But don’t look for webs because not all spiders build them to catch their prey. Wolf spiders and jumping spiders walk aroung, stalking their prey before pouncing on it. Crab spiders may wait motionless for hours on a flower, waiting for an insect to come close enough to grab with their powerful legs.

3. Galls are strand growths you’ll often find on plants when hiking. Many galls start when an insect lays an egg on a plant. A larva hatches out of the egg and burrows into the plant. The larva then puts out a chemical that makes that part of the plant grow much faster. soon the growth forms a little shelter around the insect, which helps protect it from enemies. The larva then grows into an adult and digs its way out of the gall.

4. Most of the creatures you discover on a wildlife hike will be small. That’s because 7 out of 10 of the species (kinds) of creatures are insects.

1. If you shine a light into the eyes of a raccoon, skunk or an opossum, they shine orange or yellow. This is called “eyeshine” and many other animals have it. The eyes of a deer show up as white or silver. The eyes of a cat can shine silver or green. Even the eyes of a spider or moth will shine.

2. When looking for earthworms, try covering the end of your flashlight with red plastic wrap. This helps you sneak up on them before they pull back into their burrows. Why? Because to an earthworm, red light is invisible!

3. About 160,000 different species of moths have been discovered around the world. (About 11,000 kinds live in the United States.)

4. Bats catch insects by giving off high-pitched sounds and listening for the sound to bounce back to their ears as an echo. By making many small squeaks, one after another, the bats can zero in on their prey. This way of finding food is called echolocation.

1. Some kinds of trees can watn other trees of danger. When their leaves are chewed on by caterpillars and other insects, they give off chemicals that nearby trees can detect. Those nearby trees then produce of the kind of acid that makes their leaves for insects to digest.

2. There are about 20,000 different species (kind) of trees in the world. More than 1,000 of these different species can be found right here in North America (not counting Mexico).

3. Trees are among the most valuable things on Earth. They not only give us wood, paper and other products, but they also work for us in many ways. For example, they shade the ground and give off moisture, which helps cool our air. They shelter the ground and prevent soil from washing away. And they help control global warming by taking in a gas called carbon dioxide.

4. The oldest tree in the world is a bristlecone pine in California. It’s been alive for more than 4,700 years!

Hyperion Tree

5. The tallest tree in the world is a coast redwood in California named Hyperion. It was discovered in 2006, and its height was measured at 379.1 feet. Someone actually climbed to the very top of the tree with a measuring tape!

1. Butterflies taste with their feet.

2. The largest butterfly in the world is the Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing. It’s wings measure 11 inches from tip to tip.

3. The smallest butterfly has a wing span of only about 1/2 inch.

4. Most adult butterflies live long enough only to mate and lay eggs. some kinds live only a couple days.

5. The largest butterfly in the United States is the Giant Swallowtail with a wingspan of up to 6 inches.

6. A caterpillar can grow to be 27,000 times larger than the egg it hatched from. (If a 7-pound human grew that much, it would weigh 189,000 pounds as an adult!!!).

Majestic Monarch

Garden for Wildlife—ANYWHERE!!

Whether you live in the city, the suburbs or a rural area, you can your family can make a special place for wildlife. All you need to provide is food, water, cover and the wildlife to raise their babies. Your yard may already have some of these things!!

1. The highest kite ever flown reached almost 2 1/2 miles!

2. When powerful winds blow across deserts and other dry places, they can pick up sand and soil and carry it far away. Sand from the Sahara Desert in Africa is often blown across the Atlantic Ocean to South America.

3. When air is warmed by the sun, it rises higher into the sky. Other air then moves in to take its place. This movement of air is what we call wind.

4. On a cold day, the wind can make you feel even colder. This is called “wind chill,” and it happenes because the wind carries away your body heat, making you lose heat faster.

5. The fastest wind speed ever recorded on Earth was 318 miles per hour. It happened inside a tornado in Oklahoma in 1999. more…