Here’s a planthopper (Ormenoides venusta) we saw on the field trip with the Montessori students. These tiny insects are very common on St. Martin. Like all members of the order Hemiptera, they have straw-like mouthparts and drink their food. In this case, this planthopper feeds on many different plants.
I don’t take a lot of photos when doing a field trip because I spend more time explaining the stuff we see, but for small insects, it is very useful to take a quick photo in order to show them to the students in more detail. The kids are also pretty amazed at the detail one can get when taking macro photos. The hard part is trying to show everyone the image on the tiny screen on the back of the camera.
I think there is a way to stream photos instantly from a camera to an iPad, which would probably be an amazing thing for this kind of situation. If anyone knows the people who own the iStore or another photo/electronics store on the island, let me know. I’d love to do some photo/photo editing in-store workshops in exchange for an iPad to use on field trips.
