A few pics from this past weekend’s zoo trip:

We took Libby to White River Gardens over the weekend to see their “Butterflies in Bloom” exhibit. Libby loved seeing all the butterflies flying around – she kept saying “butterfly come here, please!”:

If I had to guess I think this was a Limenitis arthemis astyanax butterfly.

Check out this gorgeous photo of an assassin bug!

Assassin bug looking badass next to small purple flower

Assassin bugs are awesome predators. Similar to the giant water bug, all of the nearly 3,000 species of assassin bug have a powerful tubelike rostrum (aka “tube of death”, as I fancy it should be called) that is used to pierce prey.

An Assassin bug attacks it’s prey quickly and efficiently, gripping the unsuspecting bug with it’s sticky forearms and deftly sliding it’s rostrum into the victim. Using the strawlike rostrum now inserted deep into it’s victim the assassin pumps the bug full of venomous digestive fluid that instantly begins to dissolve tissue and organs. Within seconds the hapless prey is dead and the assassin can slurp back the contents of the bug as if it were a yummy bug-flavored milkshake.

Right before our bike ride this past weekend Shannon made an interesting discovery: there was a small cluster of at least 8 baby praying mantis (manti?) crawling on her bike handle. Click to enlarge:

How cool is that?! Mantis usually lay eggs in the fall, and once the weather warms up the eggs take 6-8 weeks to hatch. Keep your eyes open out there – lots of very cool bugs to see as summer gets into full swing!

We finally released the ladybugs from their “ladybug lantern” cells. It was neat for Libby (and us) to watch them crawl all over our hands before flying away: