Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2021, issue 80, Tiny Wildlife i Eco Kids Planet Magazine

British beetles are a rather noisy, shiny, feisty and smelly bunch. Some have horns, some glow and one species is so small that it can easily sit on the head of a pin! Here, entomologist Steve Garland of The Wildlife Trusts answers your questions about these amazing insects. Garcia: How many species of beetle are there? Nearly half of all the known insect species are beetles. Over 400,000 species have been found in the world, but new ones are being discovered every year. In Britain, we have about 4,000 species. Claudette: How do beetles communicate? Most beetles communicate by producing chemical smells, which they detect by using their antennae (sometimes called feelers). Deathwatch beetles live in tunnels in solid wood and communicate by tapping their heads on the wood, making…

LIGHT-LOVING INSECTS! Hi, Rusty fans! Flutter BASH flutter BASH flutter flutter BASH BASH! What’s that? It’s the moth that got into my room last night and kept flying at my lightbulb. I keep forgetting to close my window! But most moths avoid sunlight, don’t they? So why do they like the light our lightbulbs make so much? Mind you, they don’t mind moonlight. Rhona says they might use it to navigate, so perhaps they mistake our lightbulbs for the moon. Maybe – but she’s never been right about anything before. Anyway, lots of insects love artificial light – but it can be deadly for them. New adult mayflies are supposed to mate and lay millions of eggs in rivers, streams and lakes. But streetlights and illuminated bridges lure them away,…

There are at least 10,000 species of swimming, bristled worms in the sea. Some are big – but many are tiny. I especially like scale worms, which have scales on their backs and hundreds of dazzling bristles below. Some species have scales that create light. If a predator bites them off, they regrow. But it leaves the predator with a mouthful of glowing body bits. These help its own predators to find it – and eat it. Hey, maybe that’s the point! Dwarf lantern sharks are the world’s smallest sharks. We don’t know much about them – but we know they can light up their bellies and fins. This camouflages the tiny sharks when they hunt in shallow waters. It lets them blend in with the sunlight streaming down from…

Charlie: I heard dead trees are more important to the survival of some forest creatures than living ones. So how do they help wildlife – and which creatures live in them? I’m in a forest in England to find out. I’m approaching a dead oak tree that’s still standing. The only creature I can see so far is a woodpecker pecking away at it. Woodpecker: RAT-A-TAT-TAT! Charlie: Hey, woodpecker, do you prefer dead trees? Woodpecker: They’re the best! I drill into them to make a nest. They have softer wood, see? Much easier to drill holes for nesting in. But right now, I’m hungry. I’m looking for insects in the wood. RAT-A-TAT-TAT! Charlie: Could you leave this tree alone for a while? I might want to interview some of those insects.…

Being small means you’re light. And being light means you’re able to move about in the treetops. From cuddly cute to almost invisible, take a look at this gorgeous bunch of tiny tree dwellers… 1. UINTA CHIPMUNK – there’s cute and then there’s ‘chipmunk cute’ With their enormous twinkling eyes and bushy tails, chipmunks are comical cartoon favourites. These adorable little rodents are part ofthe They mainly live in andare tothe They often sleep in the holes of dead trees, hollow logs and sometimes These critters Theygointoshortspells of whichisa heavy type of sleep. They eat the food they have gathered to get them through the winter Chipmunks collect intheir which is super-cute! As well as nuts, they eat seeds, berries, fruit, pollen, flowers, bugs, eggs and even fungi. andfriendlytheymaybe,…

1. Collect bits and pieces from your garden or a local park. Gather leaves, flowers, feathers, pebbles, twigs, berries – anything! 2. Mix some soil and water to create clay-heavy mud. (Alternatively, you can use air-drying natural clay.) 3. Find a tree to make your face on. Spread the mud on to its trunk or branch (messy but fun!). 4. Now, use the bits and pieces you collected to make your silly mud face! Will you make your tree smile or frown?…

Many microscopic, one-celled creatures are called bacteria. They can be wonderfully weird, with amazing powers. Some bacteria eat and poo electricity! They gobble up atoms of electricity from metals and minerals. As a result, they produce power. Another type of bacteria poos gold. It feeds on heavy metals in the soil and produces tiny gold nuggets! Bacteria are great recyclers. They treat sewage as food, so we get them to break it down for us. Bacteria may even solve one of the world’s biggest problems one day by eating pollution. (That’s all great – but if bacteria ever invite you to dinner, don’t go!) Some bacteria make the world’s strongest superglue. It’s so super-sticky, just a tiny blob could lift several cars at once! SPIDER-LIKE ANIMALS LIVE ON YOUR FACE!…

2021 has been a year of weird weather. Some parts of the UK had record high temperatures at the end of March – followed by the frostiest April in 60 years! It was like winter had changed its mind, come back and refused to leave. We’ve had cold, rainless days and freezing temperatures at night. Some spring! But a warm spell followed by freezing temperatures doesn’t just affect us humans… Some hibernating species need regular, stable weather patterns. The extreme heat can trick them into waking up early – but then they find there’s no food around. Frogs, toads and other amphibians may breed in the warm weather. Then the cold can freeze their ponds and kill off their spawn and tadpoles. Birds could have problems finding worms in the…

In the 1960s and 1970s, American comics were aimed at kids and packed with adverts for cheap novelty items. Readers used their pocket money to order all kinds of marvels, then waited for them to arrive in the post. Some of those adverts were for sea-monkeys! If you believed the ads, sea-monkeys were “instant live sea animals (just add water)”. They did somersaults and played hide and seek. You could even train them to do stunts at your command. The illustrations showed pink, web-footed underwater families with crown-like horns on their heads and smiling faces. What kid wouldn’t want their own? Sea-monkeys were an instant hit! It must have been disappointing when a packet of dust arrived in the post. Especially when the creatures that hatched from it were almost…

Congratulations to our five winners! “This is my gigantic moth/butterfly. I based the wing shape more on a moth than a butterfly. I hope you like it!” Runners-up To see more amazing entries from our readers, go to: https://www.ecokidsplanet.co.uk/butterfly-easter-eggs…

Issue 81-82 The World’s Most Threatened Fish Endangered Creature Feature The Amazing History Of Goldfish We’re all familiar with goldfish – but what’s their story? Should We Keep Fish As Pets? Eco Kids Debate Which Fish Are You? Take a test FISH THAT LEAVE THE WATER! From snakehead fish and woolly sculpins to Atlantic flying fish Living Fossils! How did coelacanths survive extinction? Deep Sea Fish How do they survive in that cold, dark world? ecokidsplanet.co.uk…