You make me think of two things:

1. I should watermark my pictures too. They’re kewl enough, I should say!

2. Would you happen to have a nice diagram of a mosquito larva’s anatomy? This needs to become a bigger science project for the kids, and such a reference would be a good place to start.

I thought sure one of my books would have a diagram of the internal anatomy of mosquito larvae which I could scan and email you…but no such luck.

Here are a few links to general mosquito info and external anatomy:

Link to external larvae anatomy:
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/mosbiol.htm

Here’s a pdf file with some basic info & diagrams:
http://cvmvcd.org/information/WNV%20Information/Document%2010.pdf

More external anatomy:
http://www.ento.okstate.edu/mosquito/larvae.html

Neat middle school mosquito lab experiments:
http://lamer.lsu.edu/classroom/seascope/folios/mosquito_folio.pdf

Insects provide endless fascination to any observant youngster — all the neat appendages, adaptations, body styles, behaviors, life cycles, etc., etc…
All children should be introduced to our six-legged friends as early as possible, and it’s too cool that you’re doing so — and that you have a good microscope to teach them with!

On the other hand, it is nice to hear that you are doing your part to make this the lowest West Nile season in years.

So think bigger than Bugs-n-kids: take it to epidemiology, viral medicine, and even economics - how globalization impacts viral (and other invasive speciea) spread. Now from those kewl slides (which I’ve already downloaded & sold. Sorry) you have 3 years of cirriculum.

Thanks much for the links. I’ll use these until I can get some internal anatomy diagrams. I wonder if I’ll have to contact an academic for that stuff…

Adeodatus:

You are a born homeschooler. There’s probably even a market for that curriculum, including the awesome picture of the prickly larva on the front.