7 Bug Zoo

Chapter 7 BUG ZOO Judy peered into the green gloom of the forest. "There's no path," she said. "How do you know where you're going?" "I make a trail by bending branches," said Beeper. "Oh great," said Judy rolling her eyes. "That'll be real easy to follow. Wait a minute." Judy pushed her hands into her pajama pockets. She pulled out a pen, a dime, a tiny notebook, a spool of thread, and a bottle of glue. Judy put back everything but the spool of thread. She tied the loose end around a tree trunk.

"We can follow this back," she said. Beeper stuck out his tongue. "Let's go!" he said, leading the way through the tangle of trunks and vines and roots. The ground was wet and slippery. Needles of sunlight poked through the umbrella of leaves high above. Water dripped from the treetops. They heard small splashes. Little scraping sounds came from inside rotting logs. "I haven't seen a single bird," said Andrew. "Or even a squirrel." meep… "No birds on Earth yet," said Thudd. "No squirrels. No mammals at all." fffffff… fffffff… A shimmer of color flashed through a patch of sunlight. It was the transparent wing of a huge insect! "Wowzers schnauzers!" said Andrew. "A dragonfly!"

"It's the size of a seagull!" said Judy. "Isn't it cool?" said Beeper. "We're gonna take some back with us! My uncle's gonna have a theme park with prehistoric animals. I'm in charge of collecting insects and spiders and stuff." "Um, the Time-A-Tron warned us not to fool around with things in the past," said Andrew. "Yaaaaah!" cried Judy, doing a crazy dance. "A cockroach the size of a shoe just crawled over my foot!" "I've got a bunch of those, too!" said Beeper. "I'll show you. We're almost there."

They came to a swampy place beside a pond. Giant dragonflies were gliding lazily over the dark water. Hssssss… A snakey sound came from under a fern. Something quick and brown—like a small crocodile—darted out. It snatched a dragonfly resting on a leaf and gobbled it down. Beeper jumped over a log. "Here they are," he said. Near the edge of the pond were wire cages. In one cage, two giant dragonflies fluttered their wings. In another cage, four cockroaches the size of footballs scuttled up the walls. Behind these cages was a cage big enough for a large dog. Inside, a collie-sized scorpion was snapping its giant black claws. It reared its tai— with a sharp stinger at the end—up over its head! "Don't worry," said Beeper. "She's just protecting her babies. See?" As Andrew and Judy got closer, they saw that the scorpion's back was squirming with lots of

white scorpions the size of kittens. "Aren't they cute?" asked Beeper. "Eeeeeuw!" said Judy. "They're disgusting!" Beeper crouched next to a hollow log. "You've gotta see this guy!" he said. The end of the log was covered with a screen. A scraping sound came from inside. Andrew leaned over. "I can't see anything," he said. "It's too dark in there." Andrew pulled his mini-flashlight out of a pocket, flicked it on, and looked inside. sssssssssssss…