Running this blog has been a learning experience for me. (Graduate school, too. Who’da’thunk?) Whenever I take a new picture and want to share it I first have to figure out something to say about it. So I dive into web searches and the literature and talk to people and in the process I get to find out more about how bizarre and wonderful nature can get. I thought I’d take a moment and highlight some of the weird (and awesome!) bug things I have learned in the past two years. So, in the style of Bill Nye:
Did you know…?
…There is a family of grasshoppers that disguise themselves as sticks.
…Tent caterpillars cooperate and lay down foraging trails like ants.
…Argentina is home to hordes of large gregarious spiders.
…Earwig moms sometimes feed themselves to their babies.
…Mantisflies pupate in spider egg sacks?
…Male garden spiders play love songs for their mates.
…There’s a reason “ladybug” is one word and “lady beetle” is two.
…Exotic dung beetles were introduced to Australia because nothing there would eat cow poop.
…Tortoise beetle larvae often make elaborate shields out of poop.
…Fire ants can virtually halt decomposition of bodies by picking off the maggots.
Now you know.
6legs2many 
A group of stick-like grasshoppers known as the Proscopiidae are widely distributed in Central and South America. They are flightless, mostly wingless (although some genera are equipped with rudimentary wings) and are ecological generalists (in that they feed on several different plant families). Although there are many species, their taxonomy is largely based on the details of unusual male genitalia. Their relationship to other grasshopper superfamilies has not been studied systematically.
Thanks for the correction. Said genus, meant family. I was lucky enough to see them in Argentina.
Interesting blog post, thanks for sharing, additionally, roaches can live for a few hours or days without heads or survive large radiation doses.
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