Fascinating Finds: Giant Crane Fly

Yesterday while puttering around outside, I heard Daughter yell from the garage, “Mama, you have to come and see this! It’s a walking stick bug!”. My first thought was that it couldn’t be since I was quite sure we don’t have walking stick insects in our area, and as I was in the middle of adding some compost to my herb garden, I was tempted to ignore her. Yes, it’s true, even devout unschooling parents have those kinds of days!

But then I put myself in her place, felt the excitement in her voice, and imagined what a typical adult party-pooper sounds like to a child. Realizing that was about to be Me, I mustered up some enthusiasm and said “Cool! I’ll be right down!”. 

In the garage, up against a wall, was the largest insect I have ever seen in my life. I’d only been staring for a few minutes when it launched into flight, spinning around rather chaotically and landing higher up on a window. It freaked out my poor six-year-old wannabe Naturalist, and I had to spend a few minutes calming her down. The thing was the size of a small hummingbird! 

Now fully caught up in the excitement of discovery myself I ran upstairs to get a jar. Once caught, we took it upstairs and grabbed our well-worn copy of Insects of the Pacific Northwest. Eventually we learned that we’d found a Giant Crane Fly: Order Diptera, Family Tipulidae. Scientific name Holorusia rubiginosa. 

It died overnight, giving us good opportunity to examine and photograph it. That’s it above, next to a penny for relative size. From tail to snout our specimen measured a whopping 4.5 cm! (Wikipedia describes this species as “reaching up to 3.8 cm”)

H. rubiginosa is one of the largest flies in the world. Pretty cool that it lives here on the West Coast and not in the tropics (they usually get all the cool bugs!). Turns out it’s a “she”. The males are considerably smaller, with thinner abdomens. This discovery helped answer a question that had been nagging at me, too. Growing up I called crane flies “daddy long legs”, but when Daughter became interested in insects we learned that this is a name for a Harvestman insect (an eight-legged insect that is not an arachnid). I then wondered: what was that creature I called a daddy long legs, and why did I get the name wrong? Well, turns out to be a regional thing, of course. In Canada and the UK crane flies are commonly called daddy long legs, whereas in the US it’s the harvestman that’s given the nickname. 

Daughter was particularly interested in the crane fly’s vestigial wings, called halteres, because of their paleontological significance. Initially, all flies had two pairs of wings; as they evolved some lost their second set completely whereas others retained them as halteres, which are used to provide stabilization during flight. You can see them better in this photo:

That’s why this Order is called Diptera, because they have two wings.

Finally, Daughter was quite grieved to learn her fly had died overnight, despite providing air holes in the tin foil lid, and a piece of popcorn “in case it got hungry”. Turns out she did nothing wrong: adults only live long enough to mate, and many don’t feed at all during this time. Our fly seems to have died a natural death, though we’re not sure if she had a chance to lay her eggs before her time had come. I’m tempted to dissect the abdomen to find out, but Daughter is too emotionally attached at this point to consent to an autopsy.

my wonderful girl

It was my daughter’s sixth birthday last month and we hadn’t gotten her a “big” gift yet. Her small gift was a pocketknife (something every kid should have). So yesterday we headed to Toys ‘R Us where she was allowed to peruse the store and choose a gift. 

Many parents might cringe at the thought, but my child is blissfully unaware (and more importantly, uninterested) in the latest fads. Of all the toys in the store…the gift we came home with? This:

The Edu Science Human Body Learning Game (with real working stethoscope!).

She’s been playing with it ever since, including bringing it along on our picnic!

You’re never too old to (Free) Learn

In my adult years I have developed interests in a variety of topics. I generally focus on one thing, immerse myself in it for a while until I get that “filled up” feeling (i.e. I’m losing interest) and then after a while something new will come to me. 

I recall in my late teens developing an interest in World War II history, and reading several novels about that era and the history of the Third Reich. Later interests have included: the conquering of the New World, Greek history, quantum physics, paleoanthropology, and mythology. Recent newfound subjects include knitting, gardening, and Voluntary Simplicity. 

In each case, I stumbled upon a book or story that particularly moved me to want to learn more. I then sought out the information on my own, usually through books but sometimes through film or online courses. Most recently I have gotten to the end of a long period of focusing on issues relating to sustainable living (the Book List I keep on my other blog is testimony to the amount of reading I’ve done on the subject). I finally felt like I’d had enough of that, and after a break from reading for about a month I felt the urge last night to start reading something again. I perused our home library and came across a book I’d been wanting to read for a while: it’s called Vancouver Remembered by Michael Kluckner and it is a pictorial history of the city of my birth and my current home.

As I began reading I felt that old familiar pull. Tidbits of information piqued my curiosity and left me hungry for more. I recalled that this year, 2008, marks the sesquicentennial anniversary of my province, British Columbia. The CBC (our version of NPR) has a section of its website devoted to this subject and while I’ve heard about it on the radio I had not yet visited the site. The book I picked up last night also lists some good references for reading more on our city’s history, and I’m particularly interested in how the First Nations lived before European settlers came. I recalled reading in The 100 Mile Diet (part of my foray into the story of modern food production) how rich and plentiful the resources here were, which is why our First Nation’s people were able to develop such an impressive artistic talent. Apparently the Coast Salish lived in post-and-beam houses using the fantastic timber that grows in our area. So much for teepees and dirt huts. 

The point of my post is this: as adults, no longer in the Institutions of School, we still learn. We still develop passions about subjects, tending to focus on one or two at a time, that lead us to seek out more information. We know where to go: libraries, websites, etc. We may take classes on the subject (crafting, adult ed, music lessons). But really, in this Age of Information, one can pretty much learn about any subject without having to go to a learning institution. 

I don’t know very many adults who don’t do this at least once-in-a-while. So why can’t we wrap our heads around children doing this, too? Why are we so convinced as a society that only “teachers” can bring the gift of knowledge to our children in a meaningful (and useful) way? Why do we assume that, without school, children cannot learn? As adults, we do it all the time. And I see the same pattern in my kids. They stumble across an idea, a story, a concept and it lights a spark and they want to learn more. Of course they need help finding and accessing the resources, but when led to that pool of water they most certainly do drink without any coercion. 

So the next time someone asks you how your children learn things without being in school, just ask them to tell you about the last time they got interested in a subject and what they did to learn all they wanted to know about it.

Counting my Blessings

There have been some pretty big changes around here, including me being suddenly swamped with work (I have a home-based consulting business). As the former Number One stay home parent, I’ve had to relinquish alot of control lately. Husband is spending far more time with the kids (though at least I’m at home most of the time, and can step out for a break with them every now and then). He is doing housework in his own way, feeding the kids, and taking them out to playgrounds, etc. I’ve been watching him and the children figuring out their way with each other and I’m really proud of the job my man is doing. Most importantly, it gives me great peace of mind to know I can spend three full days working in our home office knowing the kids are being well-taken care of. I’m quite enjoying my work, happy to be contributing to the family income, and admittedly it’s a nice break from the old routine where I barely got a minute to myself. Still, with consulting the business comes in waves and I’m certain that soon I’ll be back in a quiet period and can enjoy daily life with the kids again. I wouldn’t want it to be this way all the time!

Every now and then I hear about parents who are having conflicts in the way they raise their kids. I can’t imagine how stressful it would be to feel so strongly about certain issues and have to battle your spouse to implement them. This issue is, of course, even worse with ex-spouses and blended families. My heart goes out to them. Just recently I read of a woman who wants to homeschool her kids this year and her ex, a highschool teacher, is pulling out every stereotype and prejudice in the book. 

These things make me realize how blessed I am to have a partner who shares my vision for the kids, shares my values, etc. And it’s a bit of a fluke, really, because I knew nothing about parenting when we first got together and even when I first got pregnant I was certain we’d do cribs and spanking and all the rest. I never thought in a million years we’d be unschooling!! I know that life is a bit of a roller-coaster and times will get tough at some point in the future, so I’m trying to just enjoy the good times and be present with them.