It's Entomology season!
Entomology is the study of insects. Insects are arthropods because they have no backbone but have jointed legs. They are separated from other arthropods because they have six legs and three main body parts. Scientists believe there may be up to 10 million species of insects worldwide, most of which have not yet been discovered! Insects are a very diverse group of organisms. The main groups, also known as Orders, of insects include Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants); Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths); Coleoptera (beetles); Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and katydids); Diptera (true flies such as mosquitoes, fruit flies and houseflies); Hemiptera (true bugs such as stink bugs, cicadas and aphids).
Entomology Fun Fact
The North Carolina state insect is the honeybee and the state butterfly is the Eastern tiger swallowtail.
More Entomology Tips
Click on the resources below to learn more about insects:
Entomology Challenge
To earn your Entomology Field Badge all ecoEXPLORERS must complete the Core Entomology Challenge and pick 3 out of the 4 Weekly Challenges listed below.
The deadline for earning your Entomology Field Badge is Friday December 4th.
Core ENTOMOLOGY Challenge
- Find and take 6 photos of insects
- Upload each photo onto your ecoEXPLORE dashboard
- You may only repeat species one time. For example, you may only submit two photos of a honey bee.
Weekly Challenge One
- Watch our It's Entomology Season! Video
- Complete the My Interesting Insect Encounter activity. Take a photo of your completed activity and upload it onto your ecoEXPLORE dashboard with the title "Entomology Weekly Challenge One."
Weekly Challenge Two
- Complete the Mighty Macros! activity. Take a photo of your completed activity and upload it onto your ecoEXPLORE dashboard with the title "Entomology Challenge Two."
More weekly challenges to come!
Chris Goforth is the Head of Citizen Science at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and works to get people throughout North Carolina involved in authentic scientific research. She currently heads several citizen science projects, including the Dragonfly Swarm Project and Dragonfly Detectives, both of which focus on observing and reporting dragonfly behaviors. Chris holds a master’s degree in entomology from the University of Arizona and has published her work with dragonfly flight behaviors and giant water bug parental care. She also has extensive experience using aquatic insects to study water quality and co-authored several reports for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality about the impacts of impaired habitats on aquatic insect populations throughout Arizona.