Aren't I a lucky fella?

September 19

Had this great email this morning:

Mr. Paull,

  We found a Black Widow today.  Would you like it?  If so, I can drop it by your house after school.  If not, what should we do with it??

Thanks,

Missy Langtry

Cherry Valley Elementary

'Yes, YES, YES, please,' I responded! 'Bring her over!'

Then, later, my neighbor came over and gave me this beautiful dragonfly he'd found dead in his garden:

Missy came after school and handed over the lively black widow which I quickly transferred into a Spider Hotel where she will stay for the weekend. Jeannine will take her to school on Monday, show the kids, then I will find somewhere appropriate to release the young lady back to her natural setting.

I put some earth in the bottom of a far, a branch, and, carefully,  added the spider

Later, I made a pocket museum for the beautiful dragonfly which I, of course,  will show to kids throughout the following weeks:

I use one of my old tobacco tins for my pocket museum

I line the inside with felt and glue the insect in place

and add the date I made it.......

From WIKIPAEDIA

Latrodectus is a genus of spider in the family Theridiidae, many of which are commonly known as widow spiders. The genus contains 32 recognized species distributed worldwide, including the North American black widows (L. mactans, L. hesperus, and L. variolus), the button spiders of Africa, and the Australian redback. Individual species vary widely in size, but in most cases the females are dark-colored and readily identifiable by reddish hourglass-shaped markings on the abdomen.

The venomous bite of these spiders is considered particularly dangerous because of the neurotoxin latrotoxin, which causes the condition latrodectism, both named for the genus. The female black widow has unusually large venom glands and her bite is particularly harmful to humans; however, Latrodectus bites rarely kill if proper medical treatment is provided.

DRAGONFLIES

A dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera (from Greek ανισος anisos, "uneven" + πτεροςpteros, "wings", because the hindwing is broader than the forewing).^[1] It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. Dragonflies can sometimes be mistaken for damselflies, which are morphologically similar; however, adults can be differentiated by the fact that the wings of most dragonflies are held away from, and perpendicular to, the body when at rest. Dragonflies possess six legs (like any other insect), but most of them cannot walk well. Dragonflies are among the fastest flying insects in the world. Dragonflies can fly backwards, change direction in mid-air and hover for up to a minute^[2]

Dragonflies are major predators that eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies,bees, ants, wasps, and very rarely butterflies. They are usually found around marshes, lakes, ponds, streams, and wetlands because their larvae, known as "nymphs", are aquatic. About 5,900 different species of dragonflies (Odonata) are known in the world today of which about 3000 belong to the Anisoptera.

Though dragonflies are predators, they themselves are subject to being preyed upon by birds, lizards, frogs, spiders, fish, water bugs, and even other large dragonflies.