Category: Insects

Recently, my pal at Live Science.com, Dave Brody, produced this video news piece about the results of a fascinating experiment involving fireflies. Scientists at the University of Connecticut have discovered that males in a common species of fireflies synchronize their flashing patterns to attract females. In dense fields or woods, the mass, synchronized flashing patterns […]

“Everybody have ants?” That’s Kelly Herbinson, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences, training high school students in the art of collecting ants for the Bay Area Ant Survey, one of the Academy’s citizen science projects. (You’ll find a description in our Project Finder.) The project and the problem ant that participants most often […]

One of the loveliest butterflies in the San Francisco Bay Area is the mission blue. Hikers who venture south of the city to San Bruno Mountain or north to the Marin Headlands are sometimes lucky enough to encounter the iridescent, inch-wide insect (as I did a couple of weekends ago). But the butterfly, an endangered […]

Doesn’t spring make you antsy to go outside, get moving, and act all scientific? (Or maybe those are real ants you’re feeling—this season does bring out all sorts of little critters.) If you’re craving more, even after our earlier list of suggestions, here are another five projects to help you scratch that springtime citizen science […]

To get us all in the mood to celebrate the start of Firefly season, check out Owl City’s Fireflies music video. The Museum of Science, Boston, kicks off each year of its Firefly Watch citizen science project with a day-long celebration in honor of everyone’s favorite insect and the volunteers who help monitor their populace […]

Now that spring has sprung in the Northern Hemisphere, Mother Nature is tempting winter-weary citizen scientists out of doors with all kinds of colorful, action-packed events. Buds are bursting forth, chatty bird couples are flirting and building nests, and the excitable atmospheric conditions of the new season are conjuring up fresh cloud patterns in the […]

Before I headed to Austin, TX  last week for the SXSW music, film, and interactive conference (I helped put together a panel discussion there on the Future of Gaming for Discover Magazine and the National Science Foundation), I Googled “citizen science in Austin” and came upon the Texas Beewatchers. The organizer of this citizen science […]

Monarch butterflies need our help! The regal butterflies, hit hard by the torrential February rains in Mexico, are at their lowest population levels since 1975,  according to Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. The storms killed 50 to 60 percent of the breeding colonies in northern Mexico; the butterfly population […]

A few weeks ago, I snapped a photo of my kids skiing in the Poconos (while I hung out in the lodge). I noticed this ladybug walking along the windowsill. A quick Google search informed me that it’s not uncommon for folks living in mountainous regions to be invested with ladybugs seeking shelter in the […]