Found Science

We walked to Mass the other day.  While our usual parish, St Jerome's, is at least 5 miles away, there is also a much closer parish where we like to go for daily Mass.

It's a one mile walk each way - a nice distance for exercise, conversation, and finding things.

That day we found a dead cicada, an unidentified strange bug, an hibiscus flower (in our yard), and a butterfly wing.

Except, when we looked at it under the microscope, we discovered it was not from a butterfly!

I knew that butterflies had smooth bodies and moths had hairy ones, but I did not realize that moths have microscopic hairs on their wings!  In fact, each of the tiny scales which give the wing it's colors, ended in three hairs!!

This particular wing was pretty beaten up.  It had a section in which many of the scales had come off.  What were the tiny bubbles? Zorg wanted to know.  It turned out that the wing itself is perfectly clear except for many carefully arranged holes where the scales once fit. Amazing!

We also looked at the other insect wings with the scope,and the bodies and flower with magnifying glasses.