Systematics & Evolution
As part of ESA's Better Common Names Project, the species Lymantria dispar recently received what new common name?
spongy moth
What are the four types of integrated pest management (IPM)?
Mechanical, cultural, biological, and chemical
Which tagma of the insect body in locomotory?
The monarch butterfly is actually the second most popular state insect. What insect is the most frequently adopted state insect?
Honeybee
Where do human body lice, Pediculus humanus humanus, lay their eggs?
clothing fibers, particularly along seams
What part of the body did insect wings arise from?
Exoskeleton
In order of increasing level of toxicity, what are the three Signal words that can be found an insecticide label?
Caution, warning, danger
How many eyes does a honeybee have?
5 (2 compound, 3 ocelli)
In the classic children's book Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, what is Charlotte's last name?
Cavatica; taken from the scientific name for barn spider, Araneus cavaticus
What type of pollination is a specific form of sonication in which bees use vibrations to remove and collect pollen from flowers, resulting in unintentional fertilization of the flowers?
Buzz pollination
What order, which is sometimes treated as a suborder of Notoptera, has a name that literally means 'cricket cockroach' in Latin?
Grylloblattodea
What is the medically-relevant genus of the insect that vectors the epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus?
Culicoides
What is the term for the endoskeletal part of the insect head that serves as a brace and site for attachment of muscles?
Tentorium
One of the villains in the Kirby video games is a butterfly-winged knight described as a "fluttering dream eater." Although this knight has wings that are orange, he is named after what type of butterfly?
Morpho
Caterpillars of the species Thaumetopoea pityocampa exhibit what notable dispersal behavior? This behavior is the source of their common name, the pine processionary.
They move in a single-file line, head-to-tail
Duran and Gough’s 2020 adephagan phylogeny validated what group of beetles as a distinct
family, instead of a subfamily of Carabidae?
Cicindelidae / tiger beetles
What chemical attractant is the most heavily used synthetic compound for detection of Ceratitis capitata, the Mediterranean fruit fly?
Trimedlure
What does "acuminate" mean?
tapering to a long point
In the 2022 movie Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise flies an F/A-18 fighter jet whose official name contains the name of what insect? This insect name also appears in the names of an AMC car manufactured in the 1970s, and a Dodge hybrid SUV model scheduled for release in 2023.
Hornet
Most female mosquitoes need a bloodmeal to produce and lay eggs. What is the term for this reproductive strategy?
Anautogeny
What class of crustaceans are considered to be the closest living relatives to modern insects?
Remipedia
What is the mode of action of the insecticide rotenone?
inhibits electron transport in mitochondrial complex 1, preventing the utilization of energy by cells
The compound poly(β-(1-4)-N-acetyl-D-glucosamine) is better known as what?
Who wrote the 1915 novella that describes the transformation of traveling salesman Gregor Samsa into a cockroach?
Franz Kafka
What is the term for an organism that lives commensally within the nest or dwelling of
another organism?
Inquiline