Keeping Minibeasts: Caterpillars by Barrie Watts

Keeping Minibeasts: Caterpillars (1989, Franklin Watts Inc.) will provide you with the basics for successfully raising caterpillars. It gives advice on cages, how to handle caterpillars without harming them, and how to feed them. It also provides some interesting information on caterpillars, such as strategies they use to avoid being eaten. There are lots of photographs of caterpillars, but they aren't identified.

Find this book:
Daniel Boone Regional Library, Columbia: E 595.78 WAT
St. Louis Public Library: J 595.78043
Kansas City Public Library: J 595.78 W34C
Adair County Public Library (Kirksville): JUV 638 Wat
Rolla Public Library: J 638.57

Notes on Rearing Caterpillars by Ann Thering

Photo of the Week:

Here's a photo from August 12, 2009, of a Hickory Horned Devil, the caterpillar of the Royal Hickory Moth. I fed Shagbark Hickory leaves to this caterpillar for about 7 weeks this summer until I had to stop raising him when I left on a photo trip. This caterpillar was almost 5” long and about 1/2” in diameter when I took this photo.

Show-Me Bugs by Michael Reinke

Show-Me Bugs: an uncommonly colorful guide to 50 cool bugs in Missouri (2006, Missouri Department of Conservation) is a great introduction to the diversity of insects. This guide is useful not only to residents of Missouri, but also to some extent to people interested in insects throughout the U.S. Most of the species profiled are found in many eastern states, and some of the species or closely related species live across much of the continent.

Illustrations by Steve Buchanan are outstanding. Readers may be familiar with Buchanan's work from stamps – he has produced several nature sets for the U.S. Post Office, including Insects and Spiders, Carnivorous Plants, and Reptiles and Amphibians.

The selected insects cover a wide range of insect groups and each entry has information on habitat, food, and life cycle. Both kids and adults interested in natural history will enjoy this field guide. Wide-ranging interesting facts about life history include:

male scorpionflies give a dead insect to females as a gift before mating

adult green stinkbugs spend the winter under leaves on the ground

feeding by insects such as walkingsticks prompt trees to grow more leaves

Find this book:
Daniel Boone Regional Library, Columbia: J 595.7097 REI
Springfield – Greene County Library District: 595.7 R
Cass County Public Library (Kansas City): J 595.709778 REI
Adair County Public Library (Kirksville): JUV 595.7097 Rei

Photo of the Week:

Here's a photo from May 20, 2009, of a scorpionfly found along a shady trail in deciduous woods in mid-Missouri.