Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Click Science and Discovery Magazine for Preschoolers and Young Children

Some bugs try to fool hungry critters by playing dead. This is a weevil. When it’s in danger, it tucks in its legs and rolls over. Then it holds still until the coast is clear. Many butterflies and moths have big spots on their wings that look like a pair of eyes. These spots might startle birds that want to eat the butterflies. Or birds might think a giant face is looking back at them! A grownup caddisfly looks like a moth. But a baby caddisfly looks like a worm and lives underwater. It wears a case around its body like a suit of armor. This baby built its case out of rocks. Others build theirs of leaves, sand, or tiny sticks.…

It’s true that some bugs are pests, but a healthy garden needs insects and other little critters. So some gardeners build bug hotels in their yards to try to get good bugs to visit. What do good bugs do? Eat and recycle dead plants and other litter to keep gardens clean. Carry yellow powder called pollen from one flower to another, which helps plants grow. Eat harmful pests. Improve the soil, and more. The houses give the little garden workers a safe place to stay. They look nice too!…

Ellie LaFleur did things just so. Each evening, Ellie filed her nails to perfect ovals. She chose a snazzy outfit to wear the next day. And she always washed her long, lovely locks with Princess Luxury Shampoo. At school, when Alex spilled milk or Morgan’s braid unraveled, they shrugged and said, “These things happen.” “Not to me,” sniffed Ellie. And it was true. Those kinds of things never happened to Absolutely Perfect Ellie. But one Friday morning, something did happen to Ellie. Her head began to itch. And itch. AND ITCH. When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she raised her hand and asked, “May I go to the nurse’s office? I’ve been scratching and scratching. Something must be wrong with my Princess Luxury Shampoo, and now my delicate skin…

Have you ever been stung by a bee, wasp, or hornet? Then you know why a stinger is good self-defense. No one wants to mess with these bugs. Their stingers put painful venom into an animal’s skin. Yowch! This caterpillar isn’t trying to hide. Its bright colors warn other animals to stay away! If animals ignore the warning, they’ll be sorry. The caterpillar has poison in its spines. Many other caterpillars have dangerous prickles too. The best defense of all might belong to this bug. It’s called a bombardier beetle. When another animal attacks, the bombardier beetle shoots boiling chemicals from its rear.…

A garden spider sits in the center of her large web. A bee crashes into the web and struggles to escape the sticky silk. The spider feels her web shaking. She rushes to the bee and wraps it in silk. Then the spider bites her prey and sucks it dry. A garden spider belongs to a group called orb weavers. Orb weavers spin wheel-shaped webs. They hang their webs between bushes or tall weeds. Other kinds of spiders make different-shaped webs to trap their meals. A funnel-web weaver builds a hiding place into its flat web. She waits in this small tube, called a funnel, and darts out when an insect walks across. The spider bites her prey and drags her meal back to the funnel. There she eats, safely…

1. Cut out the orange strip and the wide yellow strip next to it along the solid black lines. Tape or glue the ends of the yellow strip together to make a ring. That’s Sid’s head. Tape or glue the head to one end of the orange strip. 2. Cut out the yellow and tan strips along the solid black lines. Tape or glue the ends of each strip together to make seven rings for Sid’s body segments. 3 . To make Sid’s legs, cut out the 14 thin brown strips along the solid black lines. Fold each strip back and forth along the dotted lines as if you were making an accordion fan. Tape two legs to each body segment. The dark brown ends are Sid’s feet. 4. Slide…

Do you only see a plant here? Look again! A stick insect is hiding. This bug’s disguise lets it blend in against branches. Some stick insects are more than a foot long. Some caterpillars look just like bird poop. This helps keep them safe. You don’t want to eat bird droppings for lunch, and neither do other animals! So hungry critters leave the yucky-looking caterpillars alone. This one will turn into a beautiful swallowtail butterfly when it grows up. Many kinds of katydids look like leaves. Their disguise is so good, they can even fool scientists. This one looks like a green leaf. But some other katydids look like dead, brown leaves. They can even have spots on their wings to look like other bugs have chewed them.…

Ant queens don’t rule or boss the rest of us. A queen’s job is to lay hundreds of eggs each day. That keeps the nest strong and me busy! I’m a nurse ant. I take care of the eggs and larvae. Larvae are newly hatched baby ants. They can’t walk, but they eat and grow! As they get bigger, they molt, or shed their skin, four times before becoming pupae. Fire ant pupae look like adults, but they’re white. They don’t eat or move, just get darker and finish growing. Then they molt one last time and become full-grown worker ants. It’s my job to carry eggs and larvae from room to room, so they don’t get too hot or too cold. I feed the little larvae too. Today, the…

An orb weaver grips a branch and lifts her abdomen to spin silk. The silk drifts in the air and snags another branch, forming a bridge. The spider strengthens the bridge with more strands of silk. She attaches other bridge lines, forming the outline of the web. Then she adds lines from the center to the outside of the web. Soon the web looks like a wheel with spokes. Starting in the center, she spins a spiral of dry silk. Then she spins a second spiral in the opposite direction, this time of sticky silk. Her web finished, the spider sits quietly, waiting for dinner to fall into her trap.…