For teachers
Red admiral (Bassaris gonerilla)
Activities
The main idea behind the activities listed here is to get your pupils out of the classroom and out into the school grounds exploring the diversity of insects that visit flowers. Curriculum links have been provided to assist with planning.
Resources
The 'learning circles' are very useful for students who struggle with large amounts of text. They also allow for self-assessment, since they can be flipped over and the student can check whether the numbers on the back match up (you will need to write the numbers in before laminating the learning circles though!).
The 'pinning insects' handout contains information on how to pin insects and how to use 'points' for mounting smaller insects. Instructions for double mounting are not given as this is quite tricky to do, even with experience.
Refer to: Walker, A.K. & Crosby, T.K. 1988.The preparation and curation of insects. DSIR Information Series 163. Science Information Publishing Centre, DSIR, Wellington, New Zealand. 91p. for more detailed pinning methods, including double mounting.
It is possible to buy insect pinning materials from Australian Entomological Supplies. Boxes can be bought there also, although a cheaper (but less secure) alternative is to glue a thin layer of polystyrene into a lidded manilla file box.
The labelling instructions are provided in a format that allows OHTs to be printed. The actual labels themselves need to be filled in, copied and pasted to fill a whole page, and printed onto reasonably stiff card, preferably archival quality.