Fly Minibeast Adventure with Jess

Hello, adventurers. I'm Jess.

It's time for a minibeast adventure!

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Creeping, sleeping

# Under stones, here and there

# Nesting, resting

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Look and listen, stop and stare

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# A minibeast adventure

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Look and listen, stop and stare

# Mini worlds for us to share

# A minibeast adventure...

# ..with Jess! #

Welcome to my tree house.

First, I have to tell you that today's minibeast

is not everybody's favourite.

But I think they're really cool.

Today, we're going on a fly adventure.

So what's in here?

I'll show you.

They look a bit like caterpillars, don't they?

Well, they kind of ARE caterpillars, but are flies.

These are baby flies called maggots.

They hatch out of eggs and, just like caterpillars,

they eat and eat and grow bigger and bigger.

And, do you know what happens to a caterpillar when it's fully grown?

It wraps itself up into a pupa, goes to sleep

and wakes up as a beautiful butterfly.

The same thing happens with maggots.

Have a look in here.

These are fly pupae.

Inside, a maggot is slowly turning into a fly, growing wings,

eyes and legs.

It's totally amazing that all that is happening

inside this tiny package.

In a few days, a fly emerges from the pupa.

Like these.

Look!

They have shiny wings,

huge big, red eyes and six legs.

Look at this one washing its face.

And this one is feeding on a banana.

What a massive, fat tongue it has!

Isn't it incredible how quickly that maggot turned into this fly,

which is quite a different creature?

Even more amazingly, the fly can lay eggs after just three days.

So, it goes egg, maggot, pupa, fly

and the flies lay more eggs and they hatch into maggots

which turn into pupa, which hatch into flies and they lay more eggs

and so it goes round and round again.

And that's the fly's life cycle.

Flies live everywhere so I'm sure there's some living near you.

Shall we go and find some?

Come on!

Whatever the weather, we're off together on a minibeast adventure!

Hi, Justin. Hi, Stanley.

BOTH: Hi, Jess.

-Today, we're going on a fly adventure.

-OK.

-Have you seen any flies around here?

-Yes.

-Over there.

-Great!

Get your feelers ready then.

Feelers out, what's about?

ALL: We're off on a minibeast adventure.

-There's lots of flies over here.

-Can you see any?

Look! There's a fly.

-Yes.

-Do you think you can catch it?

Wait. It might come on my hand.

-Can you see any flies that...

-Yeah!

-Did you see that? How on earth are we going to catch these?

-I saw...

-Oh, look. Oh!

-Where have the nets gone?

-You've got nets?

-Yeah, we've got some nets.

Then we can catch it with.

Oh, yeah!

Here you go, Stanley.

Look, there's one there. Can you get it?

Oh! Ooh!

JESS LAUGHS

-There's one over there.

-Where?

-Oh, it's far away.

Shall we look over there?

I found one!

Oh, there's lots of them.

There's one. There's one!

Look by your feet.

-Oh!

-Another one!

-Flies!

-There's one. There's one. There, there, there!

There's one there. That's just...

..a spider!

-Fly!

-There's one. There's one!

Oh, you were so close. Did you get it? Look!

It's a massive one!

-Look, it's walking on my hand.

-It's a little bit like a spider.

-Why?

Because it's...

The hair on the legs makes it sticky and then it walks on.

It's got very sticky feet, hasn't it?

For an insect, I think that's big.

Yeah, really big.

Do you think they have very good eyesight?

-Yeah.

-No.

Oh! Justin thinks yes. Stanley thinks no.

When I was trying to catch one, he was really fast.

He just flew away quickly.

Yes, if you're a flying insect, you do need really good eyesight.

If someone tries to catch you,

you have to be able to change direction really quickly.

If I was a fly and I was a friend of yours, I would let you catch me.

Oh, that's nice!

Flies have sticky stuff on their feet to help them climb.

They can even walk upside down.

Imagine if you could do that!

HE GIGGLES

What do flies like to eat?

Don't they like to eat poo?

Yes, actually, flies do like to eat poo, don't they?

That's great because what would happen to all the poo everywhere

-if flies didn't eat poo?

-It would be all over the place.

Yeah, it would be, wouldn't it?

Flies do like to eat other things apart from poo, don't they?

So, we thought we'd do an experiment

to see which foods they like the best.

-What have you got on your plate, Justin?

-Cat food and pizza.

Here you go. Here's a picture of some cat food and pizza

for you to record how many flies land there.

-What have you got, Stanley?

-I've got hummus and jam.

There's your clipboard. I've got banana and sausage.

THEY GIGGLE

So, which one is going to attract the most flies?

There's a fly! There's a fly! Oh, it's eating the cat food.

One to Justin.

He's actually eating it with his hands.

-Shall we move over there to see if they come if we move away?

-OK.

Oh, pizza!

And cat food. Oh, oh, it's gone to my plate. Aw!

Cat food!

Pizza.

-It's on the cat food as well.

-Yeah, baby.

-You got one. You got one!

There's another one. Oh, oh...

-Pizza.

-NO!

Two on my plate! Oh!

Cat food.

They love your plate, Justin. Shall we add up how many flies we got?

-Yeah.

-Yes? Well it's easy for me to do. Zero.

Jam got one.

-Pizza, four.

-How much did cat food get?

One, two, three, four, five, six,

seven, eight, nine.

Nine!

That's probably because it was the smelliest.

I think we lost, didn't we, Stanley?

I think I was the second to lose.

Yes, I completely lost. OK.

That was a funny minibeast adventure, wasn't it?

Maybe you could go on a fly adventure too.

They're pretty easy to find,

especially if you're around cat food.

See if you can spot their big fly eyes

and, if you watch them feeding,

maybe you can see their big fat tongues.

Feelers out, what's about?

Happy hunting, adventurers!