Small World

"What can we do today, Scary?" asked Henry. "It's nice outside but we always play games - could we do something different do you think?"

"Of course," replied Scary. "How about we look around for tiny things?"

"What do you mean?" asked Henry. "Little stones? Or small plants?"

"No," explained Scary, "I thought we could look for tiny living things!"

"That sounds interesting," remarked Henry. "What are we talking about exactly?"

Bubbles joined in the conversation. "How about we start by looking for insects?" he asked.

"What's insects?" asked Henry.

"They are a type of very small animal, usually with six legs, a body divided into 3 parts, and usually two pairs of wings. That's the scientific answer. But generally we include any very small animal really - like ants, beetles, butterflies and bees."

"Oh, OK," replied Henry thoughtfully. "They'll be very difficult to find I would think. Maybe some of the others would like to help look for them? I'll go and ask them." And he ran over to where the other bears were just coming out of the house. Of course, all of them were keen to join in and soon the garden was full of little bears running around looking for insects.

"Try to be a bit quieter!" called Scary. "Otherwise you might frighten them all away!" he laughed.

The bears carefully looked round the garden. Suddenly Vicky stopped still. "I've found something!" she called as quietly as she could.

The other bears tip-pawed over to where Vicky was pointing. "What's that?" she asked Bubbles. "Is it a butterfly?"

"It certainly looks very much like one," replied Bubbles. "But it's not quite as colourful. I think you've found a moth!"

"I thought they only came out at night?" queried Charlie.

"Some of them are around during the day too," explained Bubbles. "This must be one of those."

All the bears gazed at the little moth. He was quite pretty, even if he was just shades of brown. Then Lizzie squealed. "Eek!" she shrieked, scaring away the moth, and very nearly all the bears too! "What's that tiny thing on my paw?" she asked. "Sorry for shouting, but I suddenly felt him and he surprised me."

"That's OK," said Charlie, calmly. "How about I go and get my big magnifying glass and we can find out what it is?"

The other bears thought this would be a great idea so Charlie ran off to get his magnifying glass. When he came back outside, Lizzie told him "It's alright, Charlie, it was just a fly. I shook my paw and the fly flew off - but it's just over there," and she pointed across to where the fly had landed again. "We've seen flies hundreds of times," she continued. "They're just black, with wings."

Charlie had moved over to where the fly was currently resting, and he looked at it through his magnifying glass. "Actually," he countered, "they seem to be much more interesting than you think. Have a look!" and he offered her the magnifying glass.

Lizzie carefully accepted the magnifying glass from Charlie and held it to her eye, peering closely at the little fly. "You're right!" she exclaimed. "This one has a very pretty pattern on it. Do you think it's something special?"

"Not really," interjected Bubbles, who had been inside to retrieve his book about insects, and had found a page about flies. There seemed to be lots of different types, and he asked Lizzie to describe the pattern she had seen.

"Well," she replied, "It looks like lots of little white triangles lined up in separate rows."

"Ah!" said Bubbles, running his paw down all the pictures on the page. "It seems to be Phaonia Viarum." Lizzie looked at him as if he was just making words up now. "That's its scientific name," he continued quickly. "It's really just a house fly - but a prettily patterned one."

"Well, that doesn't seem a very good name for such a different-looking house fly," Lizzie pondered out loud. "I'm going to call it a Zebra Fly," she announced. The other bears had crowded round and taken turns looking at the fly through the magnifying glass, and agreed that her name was much better than just calling it a fly.

"I wonder what the fly thinks of us?" Boo suddenly asked. "We're looking at it through a big magnifying glass so we can see them really close up. Can they see us the same way?"

"A very good question," replied Charlie. "All the fly can probably see is a great big teddy bear eye looking down at it. Much more frightening for it looking at that, than for us looking at it I would think!" All the bears giggled, imagining just what the fly must think of those extra huge teddy bear eyes looking down at it through the glass.

"Let's see what else we can find," continued Scary. "Let's leave the Zebra Fly alone for now." And he led the bears away to the wildflower meadow.

"What's that sound I can hear?" asked Richard. "Can you all hear it? It sounds like some sort of chirruping. Is it a little bird?"

They all moved closer to where they thought the sound was coming from. "No," said Bubbles, "it's not a little bird - it's either a cricket or a grasshopper!"

"Oooh!" said Harry, "I've not seen either one of those before. Can I borrow the magnifying glass please, Charlie, and take a closer look?"

Charlie handed over his magnifying glass and Harry looked through it at the grasshopper.

"Since you have the glass, Harry, can you tell us if this insect has long or short antennae - that's the long things coming from its head? Bubbles asked.

"They're very short," replied Harry, glad that he could see such tiny detail. "Does that make it a cricket or a grasshopper?" he asked, hoping that Bubbles would confirm it was a grasshopper.

"It is a grasshopper," Bubbles confirmed. "Do you know that they make that noise by rubbing their long back legs against their wings?"

"Fancy that!" exclaimed Harry. "It's almost like they are singing!" he proclaimed.

"Let's look some more," encouraged Scary. "We might find some other insects yet."

The bears continued looking for tiny insects, and then investigating them with their magnifying glass. They still wondered what they must look like themselves to a tiny insect so they each took it in turn to use the magnifying glass and looked at each other through it. This brought shrieks and laughter when they saw just how big their eyes were when seen through the glass.

"Poor insects!" declared Scary. "Maybe we should leave them alone now and go in for our lunch. The poor things will be scared to death otherwise!" And all the bears trooped inside to let the insects get on with their lives, but were very glad they'd had an opportunity to see the little animals up close.

Maybe you could look out for insects in your garden or local park. Perhaps you could take a magnifying glass with you and get to see how surprisingly interesting they can be!