Loretta's Insects

Loretta is a mischievous girl who lives in a cabin high up in the Colorado mountains. She loves her garden and the ladybugs that protect it. But where do they go in the winter? On a cold winter day when she was collecting pine needles for her strawberry patch, she discovered ladybugs hiding under a rock. There were even more behind a chunk of loose tree bark. Through a loving relationship with her parents and her garden, Loretta learns about the life cycle of ladybugs.

Loretta finds a leafcutter bee nest in her woodpile. She watches it. The bees hatch. The cut circles in the leaves and flowers on her rose bushes. She finds their new nest, and enjoys watching the bees in her garden. Illustrated instructions for building a bee nest included.

Loretta finds a caterpillar egg on a milkweed plant. She watches over the egg, observes hatching, shoos away the predators, watches the maturation process, metamorphosis and migration. Book also has explanation of migration, sources of milkweed seeds, and how to recognize male and female monarch butterflies.