November 2, 2024

Bug Guides

When I tell people about Bugs in our Backyard, they often ask how to identify the common host plants, like the golden rain tree. Thankfully, it is …

The beak of a bug

What makes any bug a true bug? Insects in the order Hemiptera evolved from a common ancestor with a unique feature that all “true bugs” share today: …

Schools get involved

In the last week of October, we had our first submissions of field survey data from citizen-scientists. Julia Dooley, a teacher in Newark, Delaware, is …

Hatching

Many animals hatch from eggs, including most insects. As you might expect, the size of the eggs an animal lays depends on who big the …

Bug or true bug?

If you’re talking about insects, when is it okay to call one a “bug”? People in everyday life call almost anything a bug, including spiders, centipedes, roly-polies and snails (none of …

What’s polyphenism?

Most animals grow to a relatively consistent adult size and shape. For example, people have a range of heights that falls across a roughly bell-shaped …