What is Citizen Science?
by How many of you have seen Nova? What about a National Geographic show? Maybe The Magic School Bus? Were you struck with an unquenchable thirst …
Category: Ecology
Arthropods / Ecology / Entomology / Fieldwork / Plants
Daintree Adventures
by While spending a semester abroad studying biology in Northern Australia, I had the opportunity to travel to one of the most incredible places in the …
Field notes from January
The red-shouldered soapberry bug is unique in that it exhibits two distinct wing morphs: long wings and short wings. Both male and female soapberry bugs …
Arthropods / Ecology / Entomology / Evolution
The story of the red-shouldered soapberry bug
by In addition to this blog, our website has what will eventually become a series of pages describing the natural history of several species of true …
Quick, spot the bug!
Soapberry bugs aren’t really camouflaged. But they don’t often jump out at you if they have leaf litter to crawl in. Can you find the …
Ecology / Entomology / Plants / Teaching
Scavenger hunt!
Our page of teaching modules now includes a fun and simple activity for younger students, a scavenger hunt!
Leptoglossus: A holiday houseguest
This time of year in the Northern US, most true bugs are hard to find. They are doing their best to conserve energy, hiding out in …
Ecology / Entomology / Plants / Teaching
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 …
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 …
Host plants
Let’s take a moment to define a term that’s used frequent on this site. A host plant is a plant that supports the existence of …