Tag Archives: Chemical ecology

Is oxygen the reason insects were so big way back when?

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Polistes fuscatus

Written by Joe Ballenger I read a few things on the size of insects and the decrease of size from there ancestors to now are related to the oxygen levels from then to now. I was wondering if anyone has … Continue reading →

Posted in Developmental Biology, Ecology, Evolution, History, Physiology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How do wasps find other bugs to parasitize?

Posted on June 1, 2015 by joeballenger2005

For our final #KidQuestions post, I thought it would be fun to tackle a question submitted to us by Bridget Mendel’s first grade class: How do wasps find their hosts? I got my start in entomology by going through a … Continue reading →

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

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