Backyard Science

Yesterday morning, the girls were quietly playing in the yard and raiding the raspberry bushes when Meenie comes running into the house quickly followed by Einey.

Meenie: Mom, there is a yucky bug outside. It's nasty.
Einey: It's not a bug, it's a chrysalis or a cocoon.
Meenie: It's a bug. It has eyes.
Me: Okay slow down, what?
Meenie and Einey: repeats their spiel again.
Me: Ok, show me. We'll figure out what it is.

I go out side to look and find that both girls are partially correct. They found this:

A cicada shedding it's nymph skin. Only they saw it as it was just poking it's head out of the outer shell.

Looking through the magnifying glass for a closer look.

The shell it discarded.

This is the second year we have found one of these guys emerging from their old skin. They are very neat to watch as they climb out of the old skin and sit for about an hour, drying their wings in the sun. Then they climb the fence/tree/stairs and fly away. Last year we found alot of empty shells around the fence. It was a great science lesson for the girls as they sat there until it flew away and watched it. With the magnifying glass they saw details on it that they couldn't see without it.

Then it was back to raiding the raspberries!