Bugs, Bugs, EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

Dear Mrs. Ross and Class:
Blog #7

Hello Everyone. Maddy here again from France on my last blog of 2009. I know especially the boys will like this one. It is about the biggest display of bugs I have ever seen.

OK. Let's start at the beginning.

Yesterday we went to a village perche` (hilltop village) called Tourette-Levens.  This village is over 2000 years old.  It had a huge chateau (castle) and inside was the biggest collection of dead bugs I have ever seen.  Over 6000 of them.  There were butterflies, ants, beetles, spiders, and all sorts of the ugliest bugs I have ever seen.  And now, I am going to give you a few fun facts that I learned:

Did you know:

1]  That there are millions of animals in the world but insects make up over 75% of them

2]  The average moustique (mosquito) has 47 teeth but it is their nose that gets your blood.

3]  An ant can lift 50 times its own weight.  But a honey bee can lift 300 times its weight.  If we humans could lift 300 times our weight, we could lift over 15 tons!

4]  There are 300,000 types of beetles which is the most of any insect in the world.

5]  The eggs of a walking stick insect are the largest insect eggs in the world and are almost 1/2 inch long.

I wish you all could have seen all these bugs.  Especially the creepy spiders.  I never knew there were so many of these creatures all over the world.

I miss you all so much and I'll see you in a few DAYS!!

-Maddy

P.S.  Remember I told you about the special ways dogs are treated here?  Take a look at the following pictures.  Can you tell which dog looks like his owner?