Exoskeletal Love

Nearly 80 visitors and one Jackson chameleon came by to check out the UH Insect Museum’s 7th annual Darwin Day celebration and munch on the insect-based and more traditional snacks. Live insects available for meet-and-greets included monarch butterflies, giant click beetles, oriental flower beetles, spider beetles, and others. New this year were the live marine creatures, including some arthropods just like insects. Thanks go to the Porter Lab for the mantis shrimp; the Fall-Ngai Lab for the bobtail squid, sea cucumbers, urchins and white shrimp; and Mark Wright’s lab for the beetles and chameleon, said Dan Rubinoff of the Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences’ department. There were even insect-eating plants, and a very chitinous time was had by all!

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