David Champlain is a guest artist leading our “Amazing Metamorphosis!” program at the Museum & Theatre. I asked him to share some interesting facts about the creature he will share with Museum & Theatre visitors!
“At the Children’s Museum & Theatre, we studied the tiny eggs of my favorite creature and the tiny babies that hatch from them after three days of incubation. The babies were too small to hold but we could hold those that were a few days older because they grow fast. In just ten days, their weight increases 10,000 fold. If a newborn human grew that fast, their crib would explode on the first day and by the tenth day the baby would weigh as much as six full grown elephants!
When it finishes growing, my favorite creature turns into something that looks like a piece of beautifully carved wood. Three weeks later a beautiful moth emerges. At the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, in addition to holding caterpillars, we got to hold pupae and moths too. The pupae and moths were alive but didn’t move very much because the pupae were undergoing metamorphosis and the moths rest during the day and then wake up to fly in the evening to find nectar in flowers and a mate. Animals that are awake at night are nocturnal. Animals that are awake during the day are diurnal. Animals like my moth that are awake in the evening are said to be crepuscular. If you see a hummingbird feeding on the nectar in flowers at twilight it might actually be a moth because they hover while feeding just like a hummingbird. The moth uncoils its proboscis, a long drinking straw, and sips nectar from deep-throated flowers. The drinking straw on my favorite creature is over three inches long! Charles Darwin described an orchid on the island of Madagascar the throat of whose flower was nearly a foot deep. Darwin predicted a corresponding moth would be discovered with a foot long proboscis! The moth was found and when tucked away during flight, its proboscis is coiled around and around more than twenty times. Insects are amazing!”
David's favorite creature is the Manduca Sexta, otherwise known as the Tobacco Hornworm!
David will be back at the Museum & Theatre with his favorite insect on Sunday, September 12 at 1:30pm. Join us to examine, touch, and learn about each life stage of this beautiful moth from its bright green caterpillar phase to winged adulthood.
