Insect Fair Abstracts by School & Year
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School:
Achieve Language Academy
2169 Stillwater Ave
St. Paul,
MN
55119
Teacher(s):
Susan Benjamin
Dermestid Beetle Display (with Kevin Williams)
Shannon B, Michael D, Ashley H, Wade H, Hue Chee H, Malisa H, Steve H, Kyle K, Zanith K, Lor See V, Shavonna W, Josey W, Amanda X, Mee X, Tokeyo X, Victor Y, Keng V, Cheng Leng T, Panya Y
Dermestid Beetle Project We learned about dermestid beetles and made a model of them eating a mouse. We learned that dermestid beetles are skeleton cleaners. They eat dead animals, but not their bones. There are four different species of dermestid beetles. They don’t like to eat wet meat, they prefer it to be dry. Larva have bristles so they can be protected from predators. Dermestid beetles have a life cycle that includes: egg larva, pupa, and adult. Dermested beetles are important to people in museums. They use dermestid beetles to clean skeletons. In nature, dermestid beetles eat dead things so our earth doesn’t smell like dead things. They are important for decomposition. How We Made Our Model First, we observed dermestid beetles and looked at pictures to see what they looked like. We used knives to carve pickle shapes for the larva. We used bristles from a brush for hair. Then we painted them and put legs on them using pipe cleaners. We are making a mouse out of Styrofoam and fur fabric. Last, we will put the larva and adult beetles on the mouse. We did a lot of wok on this project. We learned how dermestid beetles can be helpful and how they eat dried meat. We enjoyed making a model of the dermestid beetles.