Monthly Archives: December 2015

How can you tell how old a caterpillar is?

Posted on December 22, 2015 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger For the final entry of the year, I decided to tackle a question that is something that I have a lot of experience with, but one is also really challenging to answer at the same time. … Continue reading →

Posted in Developmental Biology, Physiology | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why do social insects die facefirst in the nest?

Posted on December 16, 2015 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger First and foremost, I’m really glad we got this question: From: Katharine I’ve been keeping an eye on a wasp nest in my grandmother’s yard for a while. Since we just had a cold snap, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Ecology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

How do butterflies make boys and girls?

Posted on December 10, 2015 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger We’ve gotten a lot of questions about boy and girl bugs. Nancy wrote a post titled Is that Bug a Boy or a Girl, which covered some general rules about how boy and girl bugs are … Continue reading →

Posted in Developmental Biology, Evolution, Physiology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

What have we learned about science communication over the past year of answering your questions?

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Polistes fuscatus

Written by Joe Ballenger and Nancy Miorelli Entomology outreach through blogging with @SciBugs & @Stylopidae and their @BugQuestions project #entsoc15 pic.twitter.com/qAFEwyQ1MM — Morgan Jackson (@BioInFocus) November 17, 2015 We recently got back from the Entomological Society of America’s annual meeting, … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Research | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why can’t you buy a jar of fireflies? Or: What factors decide which insects are sold online?

Posted on December 1, 2015 by joeballenger2005

One of the neat things about this project is that we get some questions that are asking about things in a very narrow sense, but hit on some really important and interesting topics which are very relevant in a broader … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Economics, Education | Tagged , | 9 Comments