Insects
Category archives for Insects
Honey Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Posted by Greg Laden on May 6, 2013 
We recently discussed news from the EU on banning neonicotinoid pesticides in order to stem the so called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) among honey bees. Bug Girl has an important guest post on the phenomenon of CCD by bee expert Doug Yanega. This is a must read not only for those interested in bees and…
EU will ban neonicotinoid pesticides to save the honey bees
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2013 
Being a bee is hard. I’m speaking specifically of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, the one that produces the honey you buy in the store. Many insects, and other critters, eat by finding food and then eating it, and then they do that for a while and now and then reproduce by finding a mate,…
How to Identify Dragonflies and Damselflies
Posted by Greg Laden on July 16, 2012 
I want to tell you about a cool book, but first, here’s something interesting about Dragonflies. Terrestrial animals (like humans) require long chain fatty acids but don’t synthesize them from basic parts. Higher terrestrial plants don’t make the biggest of these molecules either, but plants do make molecules that can be turned into things like…
Do Neonicotinoid Pesticides Contributed to the Complex Thing We Call Bee Colony Collapse?
Posted by Greg Laden on March 30, 2012 A commonly used insecticide, and possibly an increasingly widely used form of that pesticide, could be a causal factor in bee colony collapse. It is not 100% certain that this pesticide’s effects can be counted as one of the causes this problem, but there is a very good chance that neonicotinoids can cause a drop…
“Excuse me, there’s some food in my bugs!”
Posted by Greg Laden on August 22, 2011 Speaking of people eating insects … as we were … I do have this fun story from the Ituri Forest.
“We Live In Little Houses Made of Beans”
Posted by Greg Laden on August 19, 2011 I have written before of insects in the Ituri Forest. (Oh, and here too.) When it comes up that I’ve spent time there, certain questions often come up, and one of them is: “Did you eat bugs.”
The Curious World of Bugs
Posted by Greg Laden on October 1, 2010 The old man crouched slightly as he took small tiny steps forward towards the woman’s ass. I didn’t see what was in is raised right hand, it was hidden from my view by his body draped with a colorful sarong. He crept closer, still crouched and still silent. She didn’t see him coming, but when…
Strange insect encounter: Carrion Beetle with Mites
Posted by Greg Laden on September 30, 2010 I’ve heard of “carrion beetles” but this is more like a “carry-on beetle”: Amanda and I were outside the cabin in Cass County, Minnesota last week, cutting pieces of plywood for sub flooring, and we saw this creature among the debris. At first I thought it was some kind of wasp covered with tiny spiders,…
An organic workout, a strange encounter, and a movie
Posted by Greg Laden on September 19, 2010 Replacing floors is a total exercise routine. Moving furniture out of the way, ripping up whatever is there, measuring and cutting new sub flooring, carting around heavy sheets of plywood, tacking and nailing, and so on and so forth works every single muscle in one’s body. That’s what we did last weekend. Also, I was…
Triassic Life on Land: I love this book
Posted by Greg Laden on July 28, 2010 The Triassic is old. This book is new. That is a hard to beat combination.
Scientific Research shows that a mystery pheromone may create zombies
Posted by Greg Laden on July 1, 2010 Wasps, hornets, and other Hymenoptera may live nearly solitary lives, live in huge colonies, or something in between. The European hornet, Vespa crabro, lives in a colony consisting of one queen mated to a single male. In Hymenoptera, females are typically diploid (having genes from both parents) while males are typically haploid (having genes only…
Re-examining the cause of speciation and species diversity in the tropics
Posted by Greg Laden on July 29, 2008 Did Past Climate Changes Promote Speciation in the Amazon? Any time you’ve got a whopping big river like the Amazon (or a mountain chain like the Andes, or an ocean, or whatever), you’ve gotta figure that it will be a biogeographical barrier. Depending on the kind of organisms, big rivers, high mountains, oceans, forests, deserts,…
Spread of Disease from Domestic to Wild Bees
Posted by Greg Laden on July 28, 2008 A recent article in PLoS examines the possibility that disease is spreading from domestic to wild bees. Osmia ribifloris
Monarch butterflies in the classroom
Posted by Greg Laden on June 23, 2008 Continuing with our discussion of the Evolution 2008 conference … Karen Oberhauser talked about the “single species” approach to pedagogy. This involves focusing on a single species and using it throughout an entire course. Karen has taught classes on this approach for teachers’ professional development programs. The species she uses is the Monarch Butterfly. Karen…
, which is now available for the 
