Tag Archives: Physiology

Do male insects have sex hormones?

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Polistes fuscatus

Written by Joe Ballenger This is a really good question, for a number of reasons. There are sources which claim that male insects don’t contain sex hormones, but as far as I can tell, this goes back to a 1995 … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry, Developmental Biology, Pest Management, Physiology, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Never growing up: why are there insects which *don’t* go through metamorphosis?

Posted on October 7, 2016 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger If someone begins a statement with ‘this might be a dumb question, but…’ my ears usually perk up, because it’s very likely that something interesting is about to follow. @Stylopidae whoa! this is a dumb question, … Continue reading →

Posted in Developmental Biology, Physiology, Taxonomy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Do insects feel pain?

Posted on August 29, 2016 by joeballenger2005

The last two questions we tackled revolved around the cognitive abilities (communication, and personality) of arthropods, specifically insects and spiders. These are really tough questions to tackle because a lot of people, even (especially?) those who genuinely like insects and … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavior, Physiology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

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

Did metamorphosis evolve through hybridization? A scientific cautionary tale.

Posted on February 23, 2016 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger This question, received through our Facebook page, is one that actually hits close to home for me because it involves one of my scientific idols: This dates back to a paper published in 2009, one which … Continue reading →

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

Why is Oxitec using tetracycline for a genetic switch? Why not something else?

Posted on February 11, 2016 by joeballenger2005

Written by Joe Ballenger Here’s where we get to the meat of the question our follower asked…why use the antibiotic tetracycline as a switch? Why not something else? Last week, we discussed a system which could potentially work for this … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemistry, Pest Management, Physiology, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

So what’s the deal with Zika virus? What’s going on in Brazil?

Posted on January 29, 2016 by joeballenger2005

In the recent few weeks, the news has been filling up with stories about a new epidemic called Zika virus. Since it’s a hot topic, and potentially very important, I wanted to write something explaining what this virus is from … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Education, News, Pest Management, Physiology | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 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