Tag Archives: Butterflies and Moths

How similar is Entomology to Pokemon? Do scientists ever make bugs fight?

Posted on July 12, 2016 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger The release of Pokemon Go has been great for us entomologists, because we have been able to get people to realize why we love our jobs so much. The creator of Pokemon, Satoshi Tajiri, actually got … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Culture, Developmental Biology, Ecology, Insect Rearing, Physiology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Do insects get trapped in water drops? Why aren’t they constantly drowning?

Posted on March 24, 2016 by joeballenger2005

Frankwmcarr Question: Is it true that very small insects (e.g., ants) can get trapped inside water drops due to the high surface tension forces of water? We got this question in the comments of Nancy’s post, What do Bugs do … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecology | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

What proportion of insects dying in captivity is considered ‘normal’?

Posted on January 12, 2016 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger Your Name: Caryl Your Bug Question: I raise early season monarchs inside in New Zealand.(I bring the chrysalides inside because of our poor spring weather with heavy rains and gales). Yesterday 12 eclosed but 3 fell … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Insect Rearing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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

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

Why is this chrysalis always dripping?

Posted on August 20, 2015 by joeballenger2005

Post written by Joe Ballenger This post is going to be odd, because I’m going to start with a confession: This question initially stumped me, and it actually took me a couple weeks to fully figure out what was going … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Developmental Biology, Ecology, Physiology | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why are some ladybugs half yellow and half brown?

Posted on May 18, 2015 by joeballenger2005

@SciBugs @Stylopidae what is a lady bug called that is half brown and half red? pic.twitter.com/E7JrP8qnzb — Mendel’s Firsties (@bridget_mendel) April 21, 2015 @UKLadybirds How unusual are half-and-half ladybirds like this? It looks pretty unusual to me but was just … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Developmental Biology, Ecology, Education, Evolution, Physiology, Research, Taxonomy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The perfect April Fool’s day post: What’s going on in this video?

Posted on April 1, 2015 by joeballenger2005

In our email on Monday, we received a message from Mike Menefee with a link to this video: I witnessed (and videoed) an interesting interaction today between a wasp and a fly.  They seemed to be working together in some … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Ecology, Physiology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What does an osmeterium smell like? Does the smell differ between species?

Posted on December 23, 2014 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger After our initial launch, we had a number of people submit questions. One of the first, from Antnommer on Twitter, I found particularly interesting because it aligns with my interest in biochemistry. @SciBugs @BioInFocus @BugQuestions What … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry, Physiology | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments