The plaster is still drying. After it's done I will pour ethyl acetate into the little holes in the bottom to soak the sawdust, and off to massacre some wildlife I will go! It still bothers me that I will be killing living things--and that our class as a whole will be out there doing the same thing. Some bugs, such as ants and cockroaches, are fairly common, but things like butterflies? I don't feel like there are enough of those around here for us to be collecting them for the fun of it. Why do all of us need our own dead bug collection anyway, when just a few living specimens of each species can teach us the same amount of information, if not more (behavior for instance). Sure, it won't be mounted on the wall for us to reference, but when we are done with them they can go on to make sure that our grandchildren will be able to look at them up close and personal as well. How sad would it be to know that everyone has a certain mounted butterfly in their attics or basements, but that has since gone extinct?
On a better note:
These are my two little Triops!
They are only about 5 days old here, and already about half an inch long. This is about the 3rd or 4th time I've hatched some. They are very fascinating creatures. They start out about the size of the dot on the letter i, and grow to be an inch and a half long or more. I bought the eggs at Hobby Lobby for about $4.
