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Category: Amazing Insects

Amazing insect stories, insects in pop culture, and answers to common bug questions

periodical cicada

The 2021 Brood X Cicada Emergence: A Recap

When the world's largest brood of 17-year periodical cicadas rose from the ground in spring 2021, the eastern U.S. (and beyond) was ready. Half a million crowdsourced observations later, the entomologists who followed the Brood X 2021 emergence reflect on the experience.

Zophobas morio larvae

Superworms: The Bigger, Brawnier, Hungrier Cousins of Yellow Mealworms

Larvae of the darkling beetle species Zophobas morio have earned the nickname "superworms" for their larger size and increased nutritional potential as food and feed compared to yellow mealworms. And yet less research and regulatory consideration has focused on Z. morio, something a pair of researchers in Greece hope to change.

Magicicada septendecim

Brood’s Clues: New Mapping Approach Puts Cicadas in Focus

More than 20 broods of periodical cicadas inhabit the eastern United States, and researchers are refining their mapping of brood ranges with increasing precision at every new emergence. A new report in the Annals of the Entomological Society of America details new advances in mapping cicadas from researchers who studied Brood VI in 2000 and 2017.