Insects and their larvae.

Specifically ladybirds and butterflies/caterpillars.  The caterpillars first, here they are:

M's caterpillars.

M was given a Butterfly Garden with a voucher for caterpillars for her birthday.  We've done this before, probably 4-5 years ago, and enjoyed it and it's good revisit things in the hope that we can cover topics in more depth if interest is sparked.  Anyway, we ordered the caterpillars and if they fit the likely timetable, they will hopefully have metamorphosed and been released shortly before we go away for a few days later in the summer.  Watch this space to see how quickly they grow!

Now for the ladybirds.  We bumped into a friend on the way home from church this morning and she told us she'd just been looking at a clump of nettles with her toddler because it was covered in ladybirds.  We had a quick look, but needed to get home for lunch, so didn't stop long.  We did however come back later and had a closer look. 

Ladybirds and larva

There were lots of different looking ladybirds, some which appeared to be mating with different species!  There were also lots of larvae and shed skins. 

Far left - shed skin, ladybirds, top right - larva

We had a look at the book we'd taken with us and found out that some can look very different and still be the same species (it only had pictures of adults though which was rather frustrating).  We compared butterflies and ladybirds and I discovered afterwards they're quite different!  When we got home I found this page with the ladybirds and this one with the larvae, which also explains that the larva sheds it's skin 4 times as it grows (each of these stages is called an instar) before becoming and adult ladybird, so was able to correct my misinformation to K & M.  Mummy, it would appear, is not infallible!