Red Spotted Purple and more Monarchs!

Over the Labor Weekend I saw five more Monarch butterflies (total this year ... 13) and found two Monarch caterpillars on the butterfly weed I planted in the garden.  The the big show for butterflies this weekend was the Red Spotted Purples ... there were several flying around.  They are very active and it was hard to get a good picture ... my best pict is below and a picture of the Monarch caterpillar was only about 1.5" long.

Also this weekend, we set up a bright light covered with sheets to draw in some moths.  We had several attracted to the light including some European hornets.  Rachel got our best picture ... a Southern Tiger Moth below.  Caterpillars feed on tobacco and watermelon.  

Friday at school, Selected Topics in Science finished our study of cells and prepared for our microscope lab on Wednesday ... mitosis and meiosis.  The Great Plant Contest continues!

Tomorrow the AP Biology classes will meet.  Tomorrow, we will finish cell transport and work on Chapter 8 - Enzymes, Biochemical Pathways and Metabolism.  We have questions assigned for tomorrow.

In Computer programming, we will check the first three problems using if-then and while do statements.  On to some tougher programming techniques later in the week.