Tag: Entomology
Keeping Bees in the City
Beekeeping is a fun and often very rewarding hobby. If you live in rural areas with a lot of agriculture, keeping bees is seen as a normal and often necessary practice. But given the fascinating and exciting nature of keeping bees, and concern for the plight they are currently in, it is increasingly common to…
Springtime is for Swarms
One of the most iconic and misunderstood behaviors of honeybees is the “swarm.” People fear the swarm – it conjures up thoughts of an unstoppable venomous aerial assault – and yet ironically it is the most friendly and tame way to encounter honeybees! Catching swarms is one of the most fun and exciting things about…
For the love of bees
I love bees. For over a decade I have been a hobby beekeeper, tending to my hives, catching swarms, and following the news about my flying friends. There is a lot to like about bees, from their biology and behavior to the geometric beauty of their hives. And of course, the delicious boldness and subtleties…
Interview with Dr. Gia Aradottir
A protest group is threatening to destroy research. We interviewed Dr. Gia Aradottir to help shed some light on this experiment.
Genetic engineering on the Fringe
I like sci-fi. I’m not your typical Star-Wars nerd, instead I like B-movies. You know… the low-budget creature feature movies that entail some giant creature killing everything in sight? They’re fun, campy, not at all meant to be taken seriously, yet can be useful in teaching about biology due to their reliance upon urban legends. Still,…
Why is ecology important to agriculture? Ask the Plataspids.
Before moving to the southern US, I lived in Iowa. If there’s one thing Iowa’s known for, it’s known for our row crops. Everywhere in the summer is green and pretty and filled with all sorts of farmland and not much visible biodiversity outside of that. If you live in certain areas of the south,…
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Polydnaviruses: Nature’s GMOs
The wasps in the video below are most likely from the family Braconidae. These wasps make their living as parasitoids, growing within other animals and eventually eating them from the inside out. Their life starts as an egg which is laid in the caterpillar by a female. This egg may divide into many, many larvae…