• Science & Nature

Insect Trivia

Test your insect knowledge by answering these trivia questions

• By Abigail Tucker / University of Maryland Linnaean Games Team
• Smithsonian.com, November 17, 2008

Take a swat at these insect trivia questions, courtesy of the University of Maryland Linnaean Games team. Lucky for us, the team is taking it easy on us. In an actual competition, the questions would be approximately ten million times harder.

1. What common bathroom item can be used in a killing jar to collect bugs?

2. What must a female mosquito do before laying eggs?

3. Centipedes have 1 pair of legs per body segment. How many pairs of legs do millipedes have per body segment?

4. Describe the marking on the abdomen of a black widow.

5. During peak production, how many eggs can a queen bee lay per day?

6. What insect was responsible for transmitting the Bubonic or Black Plaque?

7. How did the Hessian fly get to America?

8. Who brought the European honey bee to the US?

9. How many plagues mentioned in the book of Exodus in the Bible were cause by insects?

10. What is the name of the greatest current threat to honeybees in the US?

11. What is the food of honeybee queens?

12. What's a "king" honeybee called?

13. Who is generally considered the founder of entomology?

14. Who is the founder of entomology in the US?

15. Which beetle is featured prominently in many blues, country, folk and rock songs, including songs by Bob Dylan, the Violent Femmes, and The Presidents of the United States of America?

16. In what family of aquatic insect does the male of some species carry eggs on its back?

17. Who won a Nobel price for study of insect behavior?

18. How did the spongillaflies get their name?

19. What is pseudocopulation?

Answers:

1. What common bathroom item can be used in a killing jar to collect bugs?
Nail polish. It contains ethyl acetate and can be used on a moistened tissue in a jar to kill bugs for collections.

2. What must a female mosquito do before laying eggs?
Eat a blood meal.

3. Centipedes have 1 pair of legs per body segment. How many pairs of legs do millipedes have per body segment?
Two pairs.

4. Describe the marking on the abdomen of a black widow.
A red hourglass.

5. During peak production, how many eggs can a queen bee lay per day?
1,500 eggs.

6. What insect was responsible for transmitting the Bubonic or Black Plaque?
The rat flea.

7. How did the Hessian fly get to America?
On wheat straw brought by Hessian soldiers in the British army during the French-Indian War.

8. Who brought the European honey bee to the US?
The pilgrims.

9. How many plagues mentioned in the book of Exodus in the Bible were cause by insects?
Three: lice, flies, and locusts.

10. What is the name of the greatest current threat to honeybees in the US?
Colony Collapse Disorder.

11. What is the food of honeybee queens?
Royal Jelly.

12. What's a "king" honeybee called?
A drone.

13. Who is generally considered the founder of entomology?
Aristole.

14. Who is the founder of entomology in the US?
Thomas Say.

15. Which beetle is featured prominently in many blues, country, folk and rock songs, including songs by Bob Dylan, the Violent Femmes, and The Presidents of the United States of America?
The Boll weevil.

16. In what family of aquatic insect does the male of some species carry eggs on its back?
Belostamatidae, or the giant water bug.

17. Who won a Nobel price for study of insect behavior?
Karl von Frisch for his work on communication between bees (i.e. the bee dance)

18. How did the spongillaflies get their name?
The larvae feed on freshwater sponges.

19. What is pseudocopulation?
Pollination that occurs when insects try to mate with flower parts resembling other insects.

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