Illia Underwing Moth

This post is all thanks to Uncle Jesse, Auntie Lisa and Eva! They know how much Caleb LOVES moths. They saved a beautiful moth from their garage to bring to Caleb for further investigation. 

Caleb began by selecting his favorite insect field guide. This moth was not hard to identify, an Illia Underwing Moth!

Top of moth. You can see the forewings well here.

Bottom of moth. You can see the underwings well here. I'm sure you can tell how it got it's name. How pretty!

Charlotte is not one to be left out of the action. She grabbed her eraser and inspected it more thoroughly. You're never too young to begin using a magnifying glass!

Next, Caleb completed a notebooking page on his moth. I am so happy that he wants to write some information about what he's learned. He's 7 this year, and it's the first year he's really taken to wanting to write his own information down. YAY!

Afterwards we looked up the Illia Underwing online. Caleb decided he'd like to see the caterpillar. Very cool defensive colors.

We also found this SPECTACULAR video on Youtube about how the Underwing escapes from predators. It is truly amazing how God built this instinct into the moth. Plus, it's pretty cool to see the moth dive bomb out of the sky!

Discovery Channel doesn't want people to embed the video. So click here for the link.

And then the garbage man came and we were done! Thank you Uncle Jesse and Auntie Lisa. Ya'll made our afternoon.

Want to see some more really cool Insect Nature Study? Check out Handbook of Nature Study's Blog.