Beautiful Beetle Bugs

 

 

Beetles, Coleoptera, are winged insects that come in many colours and sizes. There are more than 350,000 known species in the world. They include the Stag Beetle, Tiger Beetle, Click Beetle, Scareb Beetle and Ladybug or Lady Beetle as some people call them. I wonder how many you have in your garden or local park?

I found a little beetle, so that beetle was his name,
And I called him Alexander and he answered just the same.
I put him in a matchbox, and I kept him all the day...

And Nanny let my beetle out
Yes, Nanny let my beetle out
She went and let my beetle out-
And beetle ran away.

She said she didn't mean it, and I never said she did,
She said she wanted matches, and she just took off the lid
She said that she was sorry, but it's difficult to catch
An excited sort of beetle you've mistaken for a match.

She said that she was sorry, and I really mustn't mind
As there's lots and lots of beetles which she's certain we could find
If we looked about the garden for the holes where beetles hid-
And we'd get another matchbox, and write BEETLE on the lid.

We went to all the places which a beetle might be near,
And we made the sort of noises which a beetle likes to hear,
And I saw a kind of something, and I gave a sort of shout:
"A beetle-house and Alexander Beetle coming out!"

It was Alexander Beetle I'm as certain as can be
And he had a sort of look as if he thought it might be ME,
And he had a kind of look as if he thought he ought to say:
"I'm very, very sorry that I tried to run away."
By A.A.Milne and turned into a song by Melanie

BOOKS ABOUT BEETLES FOR CHILDREN:
The Beetle Book
Beetles (Welcome Books: Animals of the World)
The Very Clumsy Click Beetle (Eric Carle's Very Series)
Beetle Bop
Beetles (Bugs Bugs Bugs)