Thanks guys! You know, most classrooms seem to use Monarchs and Painted Ladies, probably because they're easy to get a hold of and you can release them almost anywhere since they have such a huge range. But Swallowtails are far more interesting as they do more during metamorphosis and they tend to have more defense mechanisms. Eye spots! Stinkhorns! So I think they're more fun to raise and more educational, personally. I've been watching my Spicebush cat roaming around and I told my dad the other day, "I think I could watch that Spicebush all day long." And that's a good thing because lots of scientific data comes from simply observing how a species acts. The scientific method is great but I think we tend to overlook the importance of simple observation. That's how I've learned so much about caterpillars and butterflies. Although, if the museum guests want to believe I have an entomology degree, I'll take it!
Ive, that's great that you've got a child that's curious about science and the natural world. I find that the vast majority of kids who come to the museum are full of really good questions - they really surprise me sometimes! In fact, the most disappointing thing that has happened to me has been a couple of times when a kid was talking to me and their parent made them leave because "we have other things to do/see". Now, sometimes they have tickets for one of our IMAX films or they may have a sibling that's acting up and I that I totally understand. But I've had a couple of instances where children are talking to me and you can tell their parent is bored and that's why they get dragged off. There was one lady that I wanted to shout, "Do you realize your elementary-age child just had a five minute conversation with me about science, asked some very intelligent questions, and you want to pull her away from that?" I hear so much talk about how "kids these days" have no attention span and stuff like that but when I do get one that's interested I see the parents are usually the ones that get bored first. It's disheartening. But that's only been a few people. Most are really interested and I have a lot of people who take our brochures about how to start their own butterfly garden. On a funnier note, I was talking about mating this weekend because of that pair of Monarchs I pictured. And I had one mom say, "Oh, they don't know what you're talking about", in reference to her kids. Now, the younger one may not have, but the older one? I had to bite my tongue from asking, "Do you have the internet? Because they totally know what I'm talking about."
