english book click 09 2024

This change is called metamorphosis.Some kinds of insects, such as dragonflies, crickets, and praying mantises, look a lot like their parents when they hatch.. You can tell a beetle fro

Don’t Bug Me!

Click & the Kidsstory and art by Betsy Page Brown

Click

Liz (the sitter)ants

Look, Amy, an ant found the muffin crumb I dropped

Its eyes are obviously bigger than its

stomach That’s like you or me eating a whole birthday cake!

Hey, you forgot the muffin!

Look, Amy More ants And they’re all going right to the crumb

The first ant must have given them directions.

I wonder what it’s like down there.I saw an ant exhibit at

the science museum They dig lots of tunnels and rooms There’s a room for food, a nursery

And putting them down the ant hill.Now they’re biting off little bits with their pinchers

Many ants make light work!

Where’s it going?

3

And, of course, the queen’s chamber She’s very important because she lays all the eggs.

Hey! I saw that exhibit too Most of the ants are girls, but the boy ants are really cool because they have wings

Ants are really organized Each ant has a special job to do.

Right! Some ants find the food Some ants dig the tunnels

And some are babysitters, just like Liz

Those sound like fun jobs to me.

And we’re both good at finding Liz’s homemade muffins!Hey! We’re a lot

like ants I like to dig tunnels

And I like to play queen

One large crumb, please.

5

I’ve also heard that ants are very tidy They clean up after themselves when they make a mess.

She’s right, Martin They even cleaned up OUR

mess The crumbs are all gone from the patio

Hmm but they weren’t able to move the toys

The ants go marching one

And the little one stops to have some fun! Hurrah!

Click’s friend Doug Taron is a scientist who studies butterflies and other bugs at the Peggy Notebaert Nature

Museum in Chicago One day Click stopped

by for a visit Here’s what they said.

Click: Look out,

Doug! There’s a bug on you!

Doug: It’s OK, Click This jungle nymph is a friend of mine from Malaysia We have bugs from all over the world here at the museum

by Rachel Youngphotographs by Michael Goss art by Betsy Page Brown

7

Click: You have bugs for friends? Why

do you like bugs so much?

Doug: Bugs are just totally cool! They’re the largest group of animals on Earth And they have lots of important jobs

Click: Bugs have jobs?

Doug: Sure they do They help spread pollen and seeds so new plants can grow They eat dead plants and animals and turn them into dirt And lots of animals eat insects If insects disappeared, then most people and animals would too

Click: So are there any places that

don’t have bugs?

Doug: Not many Warm, wet places, like the rainforest, have the most bugs But there are even bugs in icy Antarctica

Click: Of all the bugs I

know, fireflies are my favorite Sometimes I catch them in a jar

Doug: It’s OK to catch bugs so you can give them a closer look But then be sure to let them go Now let’s go take a look at some of my favorite bugs in the museum’s butterfly garden.

Click: Look at all these

beautiful butterflies! You must need a really big net to catch them all

Doug: We don’t catch them, Click See these? Each one is a butterfly in its chrysalis stage Inside, the caterpillar is changing into an adult butterfly

Click: Those little things look

too small to hold such big butterflies

9

Doug: When the butterflies first emerge, their bodies are big and fat, but their wings are soft and wet and sort of smooshed up They hang upside down to pump fluid from their bodies into their wings

Then, when their wings are all dry and sturdy, we release them in the butterfly garden

Click: I see a butterfly on that flower It’s using a straw!

Doug: That straw is the butterfly’s long, hollow tongue Butterflies uncoil their tongues, then stick them inside flowers

to suck out the sweet nectar

Click: Whoa! Look at the

size of those wings! That’s the biggest butterfly I’ve ever seen

Doug: That’s not a butterfly, Click See how its feelers are feathery instead of long and thin? It’s an Atlas moth—one of the biggest bugs in the world Its wings can be a whole 12 inches across

Click: There sure are lots of bugs to

get to know I think I’ll go introduce myself to some of the ones in my backyard Bye, bugs! Bye, Doug!

Doug: See you later, Click It’s time for me to go feed this stick insect

11

Abdomen

The last of an insect’s three body parts is the abdomen It contains the organs insects use to breathe, break down food, and lay eggs

Legs

Insects always have three pairs of legs, though each pair may look different That makes a total of six legs If a critter has more or fewer than six legs, it is not an insect.

Exoskeleton

You have hard bones inside your body Instead of bones, insects have a hard outside coat or shell called an exoskeleton The exoskeleton holds up an insect’s body and muscles, just as your skeleton does for you.

Head

Every insect has three body parts—head, thorax, and abdomen The front part, the head, is where you’ll find an insect’s eyes and mouth (but no nose).

Thorax

An insect’s middle section is called the thorax It’s where an insect’s legs and wings are attached.

Insects come in all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes More than one million

different kinds have already been discovered What

makes them all insects?

Most insects have a pair of antennae Antennae are sometimes called feelers, and insects do use them to touch and feel But their main job is to smell things Some insects also taste or hear with their antennae.

All insects change as they grow from eggs to adults This change is called metamorphosis.

Some kinds of insects, such as dragonflies, crickets, and praying mantises, look a lot like

their parents when they hatch They go through three stages, from egg to nymph to adult.

1

A mother dragonfly lays her eggs on a plant in a pond.

3

A dragonfly nymph lives and eats and grows underwater.

art by Denise Ortakales

Baby dragonflies, called nymphs, hatch from the eggs A nymph looks like a small adult, except it has no wings.

4

The nymph’s exoskeleton, or outside coat, does not grow or stretch When it gets too tight, the coat splits open, and the nymph crawls out with a new, looser coat.

5

The nymph molts, or sheds its exoskeleton, many times as it grows When it reaches the size of an adult, it climbs out of the water

6

The nymph molts one last time, and a winged adult dragonfly pushes out.

15

Most kinds of insects change even more as they grow They go through four stages, from egg to larva to pupa to adult

Some insects look so different as larvae, pupae, and adults that people long ago thought they were different kinds of animals and gave them many different names

1

A mother ladybug lays her eggs on the bottom side of a leaf.

7

As the ladybug’s wings harden, they turn bright red and spots appear Now the ladybug can fly away.

A fly larva is called a maggot A beetle larva is called a grub.A butterfly larva is called a caterpillar A butterfly pupa is called a chrysalis A moth pupa is called a cocoon.

A baby ladybug, or larva, hatches It looks nothing like an adult ladybug.

3

The larva eats and grows, but its exoskeleton does not grow So the larva molts and crawls out of its old, tight exoskeleton Its new one is much looser.

5

The pupa doesn’t eat or move But inside its case, its body is busy changing.

6

The pupa’s case splits open, and a soft, pale adult ladybug pushes out.

4

The larva molts many times When it is big enough, it attaches itself to a leaf and molts again Its new exoskeleton hardens into a protective case Now the ladybug is a pupa.

17

“A falling star!” exclaims Dad “Did you see it, Yo?”

“It landed over there,” says Yo “In those tree branches.”

Yo Wants to Know

by Lea and Alan Daniel

“That’s a firefly,” says Dad “There are lots of them out tonight.”

“I’m getting my bug catcher,” says Yo.

19

“Caught one!” says Yo “There’s no fire on it, Dad It’s not even hot.”

“Hey, it turned off!”

“Now it’s on again.”

“It’s sending signals to its friends,”

says Dad.

“If the firefly and I both signal,” says Yo, “maybe the other fireflies will come close to us.”

21

“They’ll make so much light we can stay up all night,” says Yo.

“I need some sleep,” says Dad “And so do you Shall we let this guy go?”

“OK,” says Yo “But I’m sending one more signal It’s saying, ‘Good night, fireflies Please come back tomorrow.’”

23

Insect Senses

Insects learn about the world the same way you do—through touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste But the way they sense is much different

Tasting

Cabbage white caterpillars eat mustard plants, so a mother cabbage white butterfly lands on leaf after leaf, tasting each with the taste sensors in her feet She won’t lay her eggs until she finds a mustard leaf.

Smelling

Smell organs on an ant’s antennae help these busy insects sniff out food, intruders, and lots of other things Ants need to be smell experts, because they mostly live close to the ground They can’t fly up to get a dragonfly-eye view of the world below.

I’m glad I don’t taste with my feet!

Seeing

A dragonfly can see in every direction at once It has two giant eyes that cover most of its head, like a helmet Each is made up of thousands of tiny lenses that work together, like pieces in a puzzle, to form one big picture.

Touching

Why is it so hard to swat a fly? Tiny hairs on a fly’s body feel the whoosh of air that a fly swatter makes as it comes near, warning the fly to get away.

Hearing

A cricket has an ear on the inside of each front leg These ears can hear almost as well as yours but are 60 times smaller Keen hearing allows a cricket to tell the difference between the friendly buzz of fellow insects and the clicks of hunting bats.

ear

25

You can tell a beetle from other kinds of insects by its two hard front

wings When closed, these wings meet in a straight line down the middle of the beetle’s back They act as a cover or shield for the beetle’s body and the thin, transparent rear wings it uses for flying.

Ladybugs? Beetles Fireflies? Beetles

June bugs? Beetles Nearly half of all insects are beetles.

One of these insects is not a beetle Can you find it?

(See page 35 for the answer.)

27

One autumn day, Abby and her dad walked through a field near their house As she ran through tall grass, Abby spotted something that looked like a roasted marshmallow stuck on a stem She showed it to Dad.

“That’s an insect egg case,” said Dad “A praying mantis laid her eggs here Little mantises will hatch from the eggs in the spring.”

Abby’s Mantises

by Buffy Silvermanart by Paige Billin-Frye

Abby searched through the grass and found three more egg cases “Can we take one home and watch the babies hatch?” asked Abby.

Dad thought for a moment, then nodded yes “We’ll put the eggs in Mom’s garden next spring Mantises eat lots of insects that eat Mom’s plants.”

Abby touched the hard shell covering the mantis eggs It felt like Styrofoam Carefully, she broke off the stem below the egg mass

At home Abby found a jar and put the egg case inside She set the jar on a shelf in the garage so the eggs would stay cool all winter When the weather turned warm, the eggs would hatch

A praying mantis egg case holds hundreds of eggs.

29

One day in April, Dad reminded Abby about Mom’s birthday “What do you want to get Mom for a

present?” Dad asked.“I already have a present,” said Abby “But it’s a surprise I just need to make a card.”

After Dad left, Abby studied the photographs of praying mantises in her insect book Then she drew a picture of a praying mantis eating a grasshopper She found a ribbon to tie around her jar Abby took her card and ribbon to the garage and got her present ready

Praying mantises can be different colors but are usually green or brown.

The morning of Mom’s birthday, Abby ran out to the garage for her jar She set it next to Mom’s place at the table.

“What’s this?” asked Mom when she sat down “Did you make it, Abby?”

“I didn’t make it,” said Abby “A praying mantis did It’s an egg case I’m going to put it in your vegetable garden.”

Abby ran and got her insect book She showed Mom a picture of a praying mantis catching a beetle “When the eggs hatch, the baby mantises will eat anything that crawls near them They’ll eat the bugs that eat your plants, and that will help your plants grow big and tall.”

31

Every day after school Abby checked the egg case, hoping to see praying mantises On a warm day in May, the eggs finally hatched A swarm of little mantises covered the egg mass, crawling over one another A few dropped to the ground.

“Mom, come quick!” yelled Abby She pointed at the swarm of mantises “Look! One baby mantis caught another and is eating it!”

“That’s just what your book showed,” said Mom “We’d better separate them before they gobble each other up.”

Abby and her mom moved the little mantises all over the garden When they were done,

Abby wandered around the garden, checking on them “I couldn’t find them all,” she told Mom “They’re hard to see because they stand as still as statues and blend in with your plants.”

Baby mantises look like little versions of their parents.

Every day Abby went to the garden to search for mantises She crouched low next to the

marigolds and stood as still as a mantis Then she spied one on a tomato plant It had its front legs folded, holding them together like a person praying

A long green caterpillar crawled on a leaf, chewing the leaf’s edge All of a sudden the mantis snatched the caterpillar, gripping it in its front legs Abby could see the sharp spines on the mantis’s legs snap shut around the caterpillar She watched the mantis devour the caterpillar Then it cleaned its front legs and waited for its next meal

By the end of the summer, Abby found only two mantises in the garden But they were no longer tiny They were as long as lollipop sticks

The spines on a mantis’s front legs help it catch and hold prey.

33

One autumn day, Abby saw a praying mantis on a tall stem A foamy mess came out its back end Abby stood still, closely watching the mantis At first she thought the insect

was sick Then she realized that the praying mantis was making an egg case!

On the other side of the garden, Mom was digging potatoes Abby called to her “Come quick, Mom Someone is making you a

birthday present.”“Isn’t it a little soon for that?” asked Mom “I won’t have another birthday for many months.”

“It’s not too early for this praying mantis She’s laying eggs that will hatch in the spring Happy birthday, Mom!”

The white foam the mantis lays her eggs in will darken and harden into a protective case.

September 2024, Volume 27, Number 7 © 2024, Cricket Media All rights reserved, including right of reproduction in whole or in part, in any form Address correspondence to click@cricketmedia.com For submission information and guidelines, see cricketmedia.com We are not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or other material All letters and contest entries accompanied by parent or guardian signatures are assumed to be for publication and become the property of Cricket Media For information regarding our privacy policy and compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, please visit our website at cricketmedia.com or write to us at CMG COPPA, 1751 Pinnacle Drive, Suite 600, McLean, VA 22102.

Amy Tao, Editor; Tracy Vonder Brink, Contributing Editor; Anna Lender, Art Director; Pat Murray, Designer; Christine Voboril, Permissions Specialist; Laura Woodside, Senior Vice President of Education Products; Barb Clendenen, Director of Circulation

Printed in the United States of America.From time to time, CLICK mails to its subscribers advertisements for other Cricket Media products or makes its subscriber list available to other reputable companies for their offering of products and services If you prefer not to receive such mail, write to us at P.O Box 6395, Harlan, IA 51593-1895.

Grateful acknowledgment is given to the following publishers and copyright owners for permission to reprint selections from their

publications All possible care has been taken to trace ownership and secure permission for each selection: “BugCycle” art © 2013 by Denise Ortakales; “Abby’s Mantises” art © 2013 by Paige Billin-Frye, text © 2013 by Buffy Silverman; “Backyard Butterflies” art © 2013 by Romi Caron.

Photo acknowledgments: cover bulinko/Shutterstock.com; 7, 8 (both), 9 (all), 10 (all), 11 (all) Michael Goss; 7–11 (border) Milagli/Shutterstock

.com; 12–13 Cosmin Manci/Shutterstock.com; 13 (dragonfly) Subbotina Anna/Shutterstock.com; 13 (spiracle) Jubal Harshaw/Shutterstock.com; 13 (queen ant) Patrick Foto/Shutterstock.com; 13 (ladybug, wasp) irin-k/Shutterstock.com; 13 (dog tick, horned passalus, walking stick) Melinda Fawver /Shutterstock.com; 13 (red and green and turquoise beetles), 26 (red beetle), 27 (various) Shutterstock.com; 13 (earthworm) Pan Xunbin /Shutterstock.com; 13 (scorpion) Filip Fuxa/Shutterstock.com; 13 (grasshopper) Imageman/Shutterstock.com; 13 (snail) Cre8tive Images/Shutterstock com; 13 (tarantula) Eric Isselee/Shutterstock.com; 13 (centipede) kamnuan/Shutterstock.com; 24 (T) Elly Miller/Shutterstock.com; 24 (B) Juraj Kovac /Shutterstock.com; 25 (T) Rob Hainer/Shutterstock.com; 25 (C) Biehler Michael/Shutterstock.com; 25 (B) scubaluna/Shutterstock.com; 26 (ladybug, Protaetia, Sagra longicollis, Cuprea ignicollis, Lucanus cervus, Smaragdina limbate, weevil), 27 (Entomoscelis, metallic wood borer, Polyphylla alba, longhorn beetle) alslutsky/Shutterstock.com; 26 (dung beetle, Anthaxia, Dynastes hercules) Cosmin Manci/Shutterstock.com; 26–27 (rove beetle), 27 (green tiger beetle) Henrik Larsson/Shutterstock.com; 27 (click beetle) Brett Hondow/Shutterstock.com; 27 (June beetle) Pan Xunbin/Shutterstock com; 27 (praying mantis) JIANG HONGYAN/Shutterstock.com; 27 (potato beetle) Potapov Alexander/Shutterstock.com; 27 (Leptura) Christian Musat/Shutterstock.com; 27 (rhinoceros beetle) eye-blink/Shutterstock.com; 27 (fiddler beetle) Ultrashock/Shutterstock.com; 29 (TR) Martynova Anna/Shutterstock.com; 30 (TR) Luis Louro/Shutterstock.com; 32 (TR) Evgeniy Ayupov/Shutterstock.com; 33 (BR) schankz/Shutterstock.com; 34 (TR) Hank Asia/Shutterstock.com; 40 (CL) Wilm Ihlenfeld/Shutterstock.com; 40 (CR) hagit berkovich/Shutterstock.com; 40 (BL) Tyler Fox/Shutterstock.com.

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Meet the Beetles answer:

The praying mantis on page 27 is not a beetle.