All 6,000 species of Daddy long legs, sometimes called harvestmen, are not spiders and are more closely related to ticks and scorpions. Baby daddy long legs molt every 10 days and become adults in about a year. For defense, they spend more time hiding than crawling and have scent glands that release an unpleasant odor. They can also amputate a leg to run away from predators but will not survive very long without a pair of their sensitive, longer legs. They are completely harm

The activities Firefly Flash! and Firefly Tag are ideas from Cindy Blobaum’s book, “Explore Night Science!”. In Firefly Flash, players pick secret “boy” or “girl” cards with light patterns of dots and dashes on the back. "Girls" stay put and flash lights, while "boys" search for their matching light pattern. If unmatched, the "boy" is out. In Firefly Tag, players run from a tagger and must reach a flashlight or glow stick to be safe. If tagged first, you're out. Play continue

Humans see color through three types of cones for red, green and blue, but some people have two or even four. Many animals see differently. Bees and birds can see ultraviolet light, which helps them find food or mates. Reindeer use UV vision to find lichen and track predators. Butterflies may have the widest color range. Dogs and cats have only two cones. UV vision gives many animals a unique view of the world that humans can’t see.

Located on their back legs, some bees, such as honeybees, have pollen baskets, formally known as corbiculae, that act like pockets for them to store any pollen that has been collected. With the ability to hold up to 1 million grains of pollen, bees can visit more than 100 flowers on a trip before having to return to their hive. To help the pollen stay in place, bees will mix the pollen with nectar to make it sticky.

Though mayapples, also known as the American mandrake, grow dispersed from one another in the spring and stand at about 1 foot tall, they all sprout from one underground rhizome stem, making them one giant plant grown from one seed. It takes five years for a mayapple to grow a rhizome stem and to start growing a big colony. They get their name from its white flower and the poisonous apple it produces. Every part of the mayapple plant is poisonous and will make you extremely s

Eastern comma and question mark butterflies are easy to spot thanks to tiny punctuation-shaped markings on their wings. Both overwinter as adults so they are among the first butterflies seen in spring. They have two broods a year and look different by season. Their spiky caterpillars feed on elm hackberry and nettles. Adults drink from sap fruit and droppings. Look closely at their underwings to spot a silver comma or a question mark.

Pillbugs, also known as roly-polies and many other nicknames, are not really insects, but rather crustaceans. They are the only crustaceans that live entirely on land. They do not urinate due to their high tolerance for ammonia and also eat their own feces. Pillbugs are scavengers and serve as decomposers returning nutrients to the soil. Roly-polies pose no risk to humans.

Ever wonder how fish survive winter in frozen lakes? Since they’re cold-blooded, their body temperature matches the chilly water. As ice forms, warmer water sinks to the bottom, and fish rest there, barely moving. They don’t hibernate but enter a low-energy state, needing little food or oxygen. When spring comes and the water warms, they become active again.