10 Lined June Beetle

This is my new addition, to my living bug collection. It's a 10 Lined June Beetle, and I have been hunting for a living one for over 5 years. I have 2 dead ones but the living ones have been hard to catch. My mama read where one man searched for 37 years in our area and never found a living species. Unfortunately, mine won't live long. It's only purpose in it's adult life is to breed one time and lay eggs. The male reason to live is over when he has mated with a female and the female life is over after she's laid her eggs. Mine is a female and I have no idea if she has laid eggs or not! If she has already laid eggs somewhere she may live a coupe of days. If not, she will live a while longer. To find out how I finally got this one click here.

I have been researching what they need in their habitat and i put in about two inches of dirt because they like to burrow, the cotton ball dipped in water: is its water source, the conifer needle is its food source, the wood is its shelter.
Me holding her. She is about an 1 1/2 inches long and she makes the loudest, RADDEST hissing noise!

THANK YOU MR. & MRS. RAZBERRY for thinking of me!!

surprised

I spend spring collecting caterpillars and chrysalis'. But this chrysalis came out as a wasp, It should have been a garden tiger moth. This happens when an adult wasp lays an egg on a caterpillar. When the caterpillar went into its chrysalis, the wasp larva emerged from its egg and ate the caterpillar. This is a great way God gives the wasp its own protection from predators, during this time in their life when they are most vulnerable. It is very rare to find a chrysalis/cocoon that has a wasp larva in it, so I was very fortunate to witness this!