Moth 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

# Miniworlds for us to share A Minibeast Adventure! #

With Jess.

Welcome to my treehouse. Take a look at this.

Do you know what that is?

Looks a bit like a butterfly, doesn't it?

But it's not a butterfly, it's a moth.

This particularly fantastic species is a death's-head hawk moth.

Can you believe something that beautiful lives in the UK?

Well, it does, but you might not have seen it

because they come out at night while we're sleeping.

There's loads of different types of moths in the UK.

They come into our houses and flutter around the lights.

This one would be fluttering around too if it were night-time.

But it's day time and it's sleeping

so that gives us a chance to have a good look at it.

It has huge eyes which help it to see at night

and a fluffy coat to keep it warm.

A moth is an insect so it has six legs

and it has straight pale antennae to sense the world around it.

It looks a bit like a butterfly, doesn't it?

So how can we tell the difference between butterflies and moths?

Well, moths often come out at night

but butterflies only come out in the day.

There's another way to tell the difference too.

I've got a painted lady butterfly in here.

Look carefully at the wings.

How do they fold them up?

Butterflies fold their wings up like this.

Now look at our moth.

Can you see it's more of a dart shape

and when it closes its wings it folds them along its back?

Butterflies...up.

Moths...down.

Try to remember that when we go on today's moth adventure.

You're probably thinking we have to wait until night to find moths

but actually there's quite a lot of moths that fly in the day.

Shall we go and find one?

Come on!

Whatever the weather we're off together on a Minibeast Adventure!

-Hi, Rowan. Hi, Lilliah.

-BOTH:

-Hello, Jess!

Brilliant to see you.

Today we're going on a moth adventure.

-Have you ever seen a moth before?

-I have on holiday.

-It was like a butterfly.

-Oh, have you ever seen one, Lilliah?

-Nope.

Well, hopefully you'll see one today. Get your feelers ready.

-ALL:

-Feelers out, what's about?

We're off on a Minibeast Adventure!

Come on.

A really good way to look for moths is to sweep for them with nets.

-Shall we try that?

-Yes.

Now let's see if we can find any moths, shall we?

I think I got moths.

No.

-Any moths?

-No.

-Loads of insects in there.

-Wow! Any moths though?

-No.

-It's not easy to catch them.

-It is not easy to catch them.

What is that green thing?

-Where?

-There.

-Oh, my goodness! Look at this.

I think it's a little grasshopper.

Look how green it is. Isn't that amazing?

Ooh!

Ha-ha-ha!

Did it jump onto you, Rowan?

-It's very hard finding moths.

-It is very hard.

-You only see them at night-time.

-You do normally see them at night-time.

Look, I've got two moths in here!

Can you see them? These white things here.

-It's not actually a moth.

-That is a moth.

-What was the one you saw like?

-It was brown.

There's lots and lots of different types and different shapes of moth.

Some are big and some are little, like these ones.

They look like butterflies.

They do look a bit like butterflies, don't they? What's different?

Different thing that they hold their wings like...

They're holding their wings backwards, aren't they?

But butterflies hold their wings straight up.

-I got something.

-What have you got? That is beautiful.

-Is it a moth?

-It is a moth. Look at the colours on that.

-It's pink and grey.

It's got lots of colours on it. What are these things at the front here?

-Feelers.

-What do you think a moth does with its feelers?

Do you think it listens with them?

-Do you think it sees with them?

-No.

It uses those to smell

and it can smell things that are really, really far away.

It could smell from another country.

Oh, well, it's almost that far.

It's almost like if in the next village they were cooking a pizza

-and you could smell it from here.

-Shall we put it back?

Ooh, it heard you! It just flew away.

How good are you at smelling?

Could you smell a flower from this close?

Or from here?

How about from this far away?

A moth can smell its food from right over the other side of town.

Most moths come out at night so it's very difficult to see them

but last night I put out a special trap.

Hopefully we've got some inside. Shall we have a look?

Now if we carefully lift this out...

Shall we see what we've got under these egg boxes?

-I see one!

-Oh, wow.

-We've got lots of them, haven't we?

-It flew away!

Oh, they're all flying away. Why are they flying away, Lilliah?

-Because it's not night-time.

-Yeah, they're going to find somewhere else

to hide because we've woken them up. Wow, look at his head.

-It looks a bit like a wasp, it does.

-A bit like a wasp?

-Shall we take the other side out as well?

-Yeah.

Moths do make holes in clothes, they do.

Moths do make holes in clothes sometimes, don't they?

There is a special moth that eats clothes, but not all of them

and not these ones.

-They're night-time ones.

-Oh, look at this one.

Wow, can you see?

-Rowan, look at this one.

-Wow!

-Isn't that beautiful?

-Yes.

They're much better than the moths that didn't want to come out.

They're much better than the moths we saw during the day, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-Tonight you might find even more moths.

-They might come and live in the trap.

-We could do it again tonight.

You could do it at home.

All you have to do is put up a white sheet and put a light behind it

-and then moths will come towards it.

-An old sheet?

It can be any white sheet.

-I would like to see some pretty ones.

-Pretty ones?

-I want to see that one.

-This one?

I'm putting up a sheet ready to do a bit of moth spotting

when it gets dark. If I shine my torch on the sheet

it will attract moths and I can have a really close look at them.

Maybe you could go on a moth adventure too.

You might be able to find a day-flying moth or maybe

you could stay up late one night and use a sheet and a torch like I am.

Feelers out, what's about?

Happy hunting, adventurers!