The Mississippi State University extension service held a children’s insect workshop Wednesday at the Crosby Arboretum in Picayune.

Christian Stephenson, an extension agent with the MSU Hancock County Extension office, led the workshop. Stephenson’s specialty lies in entomology, the study of insects.

Before heading out into the arboretum, Stephenson showed the children what kinds of insects they would be able to collect.

“Bugs are something we see all the time, but we don’t pay attention to,” said Stephenson.

The extension center puts on these workshops about once a year to teach young people to appreciate what’s out there, said Stephenson.

“Bugs play an important role in the environment,” with the most common example being bees, said Stephenson.

One family brought their own insect specimen to the workshop.

They had found a large beetle, about the length of a thumb in size and asked Stephenson to identify it.

It was a rhinoceros beetle, or Eastern Hercules, and isn’t too common in the area, said Stephenson.

It has a hard, tough shell and horns on its front used for fighting other rhinoceros beetles. Stephenson explained to the family that when two of these beetles fight, they are trying to flip the other onto its back so it cannot move.

Though rhinoceros beetles were unlikely to be found Wednesday at the arboretum, some of the insects collected included caterpillars, worms, dragonflies, moths, crickets and grasshoppers.

Children were allowed to take home any bugs they collected during the workshop.

Stephenson taught them how to make an insect collection and how to record the different species. He placed several insects under a microscope to show children different parts of the bug that are difficult to notice with the naked eye.

The Crosby Arboretum also hosts Bugfest each September in partnership with the New Orleans Audubon Institute.