Flies in the Face of Fashion, Mite Make Right, And Other Bugdacious Tales

by Turpin, Tom

• ISBN13: 9781557534170
• ISBN10: 1557534179
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-05-30
• Publisher: Purdue Univ Pr

Summary

If you want to get downright buggy, pick up this wonderful collection of insect tales from the Bug Bowl guru, Tom Turpin. After you're through, you'll no more about the six-leg kingdom and its occupants than any bookworm that you run across. How does insect suturing work? Which insect did the ancient Egyptians worship as a god? What did Ogden Nash have to say about termites? Which insect produces Turkey Red dye? What bug has survived for 300 million years? How does a horse fly manage to fly without its head? Each tale is easily accessible, provides fun and scientific facts, and is self-contained. Juveniles through adults will be fascinated with the world of Turpin's bugs. The nicely illustrated collection won't give you ants in your pants, but just might put a flea in your ear.

Author Biography

Dr. Tom Turpin is the creator of Purdue University's ôBug Bowl,ö a celebration of insect antics that annually draws more than 12,000 visitors who come to munch on bug stir-fry, to take part in cricket-spitting contests, and to cheer on tractor-pulling creepy crawlers at Roach Hill Downs. He is a professor of entomology at Purdue's College of Agriculture.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION	1	(6)
INSECTS & HUMANS	7	(24)
So What's Bugging You?	9	(2)
Take Two Maggots and Call Me in the Morning	11	(3)
The 2003 Insect Achievement Awards	14	(3)
Bugfolk	17	(2)
Some States Are Buggy over Insect Symbols	19	(2)
Some Pets Not of the Warm and Fuzzy Kind	21	(2)
Honey Hunters Have Raided Nests for Eons	23	(2)
Insect Names Have Interesting Histories	25	(3)
Flea Glass Apt Name for a Microscope	28	(3)
LEPIDOPTERA	31	(34)
Butterflies Are Favorite Insects for Most People	34	(3)
Butterfly or Moth?	37	(2)
Butterflies at Weddings, Oh My!	39	(3)
Beautiful but Bitter	42	(2)
Butterfly Garden: Build It and They Will Come	44	(2)
A Tale of Two Moths	46	(2)
Caterpillar Encounters Escalate during Fall Months	48	(3)
A Very Good Year for Painted Lady Butterflies	51	(2)
Insect Armies on the March	53	(3)
Moths' Bright Underwings Startle Predators	56	(2)
Tenting on the Old Campground	58	(2)
Mischievous Moths Masquerade as Hummingbirds	60	(5)
HYMENOPTERA	65	(38)
"The Ants Go Marching Two by Two, Hurrah, Hurrah"	68	(3)
What Would a Picnic Be without Ants?	71	(3)
Warrior Ants on the March	74	(2)
Insect Carpenters	76	(2)
A Bee or Not a Bee—That Is the Stinging Question!	78	(2)
Not All Bees and Wasps Sting	80	(2)
The Yellow Jackets Are Coming	82	(2)
Spring in the Colonies	84	(2)
Insect Masons Build Little Mud Houses	86	(2)
Bees and Flowers Play the Pollination Game	88	(2)
Killer on the Loose	90	(2)
Dance, Honey Bee, Dance	92	(3)
Hornet Artisans	95	(2)
Honey Bees Become Beasts of Burden	97	(2)
Honey Bees Live in Nests	99	(4)
DIPTERA	103	(20)
Doggers of Civilization	105	(2)
Flies Have Families, Too	107	(2)
April Showers, May Flowers, and Mosquito Blood Banks	109	(2)
Little Fruit Flies Cause Big Disturbance	111	(2)
Menacing Mosquitoes Are Vamps, Tramps, and Scamps	113	(3)
Deer Flies Aren't Dear Flies	116	(2)
The Case of the Headless Horse Fly	118	(2)
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears	120	(3)
OTHER ORDERS	123	(34)
By Any Name, a Cockroach Is Still a Cockroach (Dictyopera)	125	(2)
Pious Frauds of the Insect World (Dictyopera)	127	(2)
Water Striders Use Tension to Stay Afloat (Hemiptera)	129	(2)
Insect Groupies (Hemiptera)	131	(2)
The Treetops Are Alive with the Sounds of Cicadas (Homoptera)	133	(2)
Aphids Sometimes Called Plant Lice (Homoptera)	135	(2)
Leafhoppers by the Zillions (Homoptera)	137	(2)
Termites: Nature's Wood Destruction Crew (Isoptera)	139	(2)
Some Insects Have a Lot of Nerve (Neuroptera)	141	(3)
The Doodlebug's Charm (Neuroptera)	144	(1)
Arsenic and Old Lacewings (Neuroptera)	145	(2)
Insect Dragons (Odonata)	147	(2)
Hoppers, Hoppers Everywhere (Orthoptera)	149	(2)
Katydids Do It in the Trees (Orthoptera)	151	(2)
Cricket Sounds Attract Attention (Orthoptera)	153	(4)
INSECT BIOLOGY	157	(68)
Insects Are Schizophrenic	159	(2)
Have Wings, Will Fly	161	(2)
Antennae Aren't Just for Space Aliens	163	(2)
A Tale of Blood and Guts of the Insect Type	165	(3)
In Insects, the Eyes Have It!	168	(3)
Stripteasing—Insect Style	171	(2)
Insect Legs Are Not Just for Walking	173	(3)
Insect Mouths Have a Story to Tell	176	(2)
Insects Bite and Sting for Good Reasons	178	(3)
Insects Don't Add; They Multiply	181	(2)
Insect Songsters	183	(2)
"Nosy" Insects Mind Own Business	185	(2)
Insect Eggs	187	(2)
Insect Mimics	189	(2)
Insect Guts Alive with Bugs	191	(3)
Termite Queens Are the Methuselahs of the Insect World	194	(3)
Say It with Perfume	197	(2)
Singing and Stinging Insects Can't Hide Their Sex	199	(3)
Insect Breathing Not Dependent on Noses	202	(2)
Cold-Blooded Insects	204	(2)
Case Makers of the Insect World	206	(3)
Most Insects Exhibit Poor Parenting Skills	209	(3)
Do Insects Have Personalities?	212	(3)
Insect Odors Worth a Thousand Words	215	(2)
Insect Ghosts Are Discarded Exoskeletons	217	(2)
Great Pretenders of the Insect World	219	(2)
Take a Trip to a Zoo of Insects	221	(4)
INSECT ECOLOGY	225	(20)
Our Immigrant Insects	227	(2)
Some Plants Get the Last Laugh on Insects	229	(2)
Insects Use Clocks to Tell Time	231	(2)
Insect Antifreeze	233	(2)
Birds Really Go for Bug Chow	235	(2)
It Takes Gall	237	(2)
Bugs Know When Spring Has Sprung	239	(2)
Winds of Winter Not Favorite Thing to Insects	241	(4)
REFERENCES	245	(2)
INDEX	247