The Bug Museum (also in Colorado)

Wednesday morning we drove into Woodland Park for breakfast at The Donut Mill. Afterwards we drove into Colorado Springs to go to the bug museum at the John May Museum. The museum is housed at an RV park and isn't exactly a technologically advanced museum. Nor is it all that nice. But it was fascinating (and cheap!!!!--only $10 for me, Ellie and Kara). John May (the guy whom the museum was named after) was a bug catcher (is that what you call them?) for many, many years and quite a few of the bugs were caught in the 1930s. There were so many different and fascinating kinds of bugs. Even Ellie (who abhors spiders) thought that the exhibit was really cool. I took a few pics of some of the bugs. They turned out okay despite the bad lighting and my not-so-steady hand.

There were lots of iridescent butterflies on display. Many of these are found flying at the treetops in the Amazon. When pilots are flying over the Amazon, they will frequently see flashes of light which are these butterflies reflecting the sunlight. They were beautiful.
There were also lots of iridescent beetles. They were just fascinating to see. It was so amazing to see the detail and variety of colors in these bugs that God created. It was awe-inspiring just to think about God making even bugs beautiful.
This was a variety of locust found in Columbia. Don't you love the pink wings? The wing span was about 8 inches.
This was a very rare African giant beetle. There have only ever been a few captured and the fly quite high in the air. The back of the beetle was velvety soft, not hard. This beetle was about 6 inches long.

Here is another locust that measured about 8 inches.
This was a stick bug that measured 15-18 inches long. This sucker was huge (as far as bugs go)!!