This blog post is one I have been wanting to write up since the day me and John went to the Insectarium in February. The problem I was having was not knowing where to start with this. I took so many pictures and also have so much information about each bug we held but, I don't want the post to be too long. Where to start with this one....it's a tough decision. I guess the best place to start would probably be an introduction to the Insectarium. Located in Philadelphia, the Insectarium is a new science museum that showcase on of the most diverse living arthropod collections in the U.S. Arthropods are an invertebrate animal of the large phylum Arthropoda, such as an insects, spiders, or crustaceans. They have a 7,000 square foot tropical butterfly pavilion that houses around 2,000 tropical and native butterflies. Its a really beautiful area and if you're lucky, a butterfly will land on you, just be sure to wear bright colors! They also have many other types of bugs and insects that you can observe and learn about. Sometimes you may be able to hold a few or witness them being fed.
During our visit, my favorite insect of the day was the comet moth they had. Comet moths are absolutely gorgeous and the male is one of the worlds largest silk moths.. They are found in Africa and are native to the rain forests of Madagascar. An adult comet moth does not have a mouth and only lives for a few days. Its only purpose in life is to mate before it dies. I was so in love with this beautiful creature and I named him Midas. I spent most of the first half of the trip just carrying it around and taking pictures of it. He was so fluffy and adorable, I wanted to just keep him forever. I will have more photos of this cutie pie below. He didn't move much or try to fly away and when you're handing him off to someone, he sticks to you. His entire body is covered in cute fluff.
We got to hold so many different insects and bugs, it was the most amazing experience. One bug ,that belonged to the Insectarium, that we saw at the Tattoo Convention we couldn't hold and I included a small bit about it in the other post. When that post went live, I had a few people send me messages on Instagram about the bug and asked me to include it in this post. The giant desert centipede is found in southwestern U.S. and North Mexico. It is the largest centipede in North America and it sets invertebrates and small vertebrates, such as rodents, reptiles, and amphibians. This centipedes bite to human causes sharp localized pain and swelling. It hasn't caused any confirmed deaths, however, individual cases of sever symptom and injury such as kidney failure and heart attack have been recorded. So obviously, due to this we were not allowed to hold this creature and the lid to its container was not allowed to stay off for too long.
This next beauty is the Orchid Mantis and it's absolutely stunning in person. It was a little skittish and jumped out of our hands a lot but other than that it was really cool to hold it. These are found in the rainforests of southeast Asia and they have legs that resemble flower petals. I wish I had a better picture of the legs, they were my favorite part of it. This one as you can see is brown and white but they can also change color to be pink. The change color according the their background s other can camouflage themselves better. These beauties are carnivorous and eat small insects such as crickets, flies, fruit flies, beetles, and stinging insects such as bees. They have also been known to eat vertebrates larger than themselves such as lizards, birds, frogs, turtles, and mice.
I hope this post was interesting for you babes and also a bit educational. I really have a new found love for bugs and insects and would love go back to school for Entomology. But until then, the Insectarium will be my go to place to interact with some really beautiful and interesting bugs and insects. I will have a second part to this, as well as a butterfly post so be sure to check back soon for those.
During our visit, my favorite insect of the day was the comet moth they had. Comet moths are absolutely gorgeous and the male is one of the worlds largest silk moths.. They are found in Africa and are native to the rain forests of Madagascar. An adult comet moth does not have a mouth and only lives for a few days. Its only purpose in life is to mate before it dies. I was so in love with this beautiful creature and I named him Midas. I spent most of the first half of the trip just carrying it around and taking pictures of it. He was so fluffy and adorable, I wanted to just keep him forever. I will have more photos of this cutie pie below. He didn't move much or try to fly away and when you're handing him off to someone, he sticks to you. His entire body is covered in cute fluff.
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