April 30, 2013
Insects are afoot! Look closely… —photo by Jerod Skebo
December 11, 2012
On a toothbrush or in your basement, not so cool—but outside, encountering an earwig is fun. Was this omnivore on the hunt for live prey, or scavenging some decaying fruit? Its pincers are scary-looking, but pose no real threat to humans. —photo by Jerod Skebo
December 2, 2012
Can you identify this colorful, camouflaged critter? —photo by Jerod Skebo (September 2012)
November 21, 2012
Despite their cute appearance, ladybugs (or ladybird beetles) are ravenous hunters. But what do they eat?
November 19, 2012
The Wheel bug (Arilus cristatus) uses its spiny wheel-like protrusion as a hard armor, but it feeds on mostly soft-bodied insects like caterpillars. Yum!
November 7, 2012
Is this tree turning into a muppet? No! It’s just covered in woolly aphids. Their filamentous waxy white covering resembles cotton or wool, and in flight they are sometimes called “flying mice!” Penn State’s Ag Extension has more: http://agsci.psu.edu/tfpg/part2/insects-mites-web/wooly-apple-aphid —photo by Jerod Skebo
October 2, 2012
Walking Stick, Stick-bug, Phasmatodea: whatever you call these creatures, finding them is a treat. We walk past them all the time, but when they make themselves a little more obvious, you can see the elegant sweep of their body. —photo by Jerod Skebo
September 20, 2012
Here’s a fun activity: squint your eyes and imagine that you are an insect, and the world around you that seems normal to humans is massive. How long would it take to travel from one place to another? What would a flower look like at an insect’s scale? —photo by Justin Raymond
September 14, 2012
This Crane Fly is in the process of laying some eggs in a rocky stream. Have you stomped around streams to discover any larvae this year? —photo by Jerod Skebo
September 1, 2012
There are more than 400,000 known different types of beetles — that constitutes about 40% of all known insect species! —photo by Jerod Skebo
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