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Insect Knowledge #1

Can you answer these random trivia questions about insects?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 21, 2018
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First submittedJanuary 20, 2018
Times taken9,592
Average score72.2%
Rating4.28
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Question
Answer
What insect has caused the most human deaths?
Mosquito
What wood-eating insect is known for building mounds?
Termite
What creature is also called a "lightning bug"?
Firefly
What insect, named for a month of the year, has an adult life span of just a few minutes?
Mayfly
What insect spends 13 or 17 years underground before briefly emerging to mate?
Periodic Cicada
What is the name of the "feelers" than extend from an insect's head?
Antennae
What insect's posture makes it look like it is praying?
Mantis
What insect is known as a locust when it is swarming?
Grasshopper
What part of an insect's body comes between the head and abdomen?
Thorax
What insect is thought to have spread the Black Death?
Flea
What does a caterpillar become inside of a cocoon?
Moth
What do insects have six of?
Legs
What D word refers to a male bee?
Drone
What substance is fed to bee larvae to help them become queens?
Royal Jelly
What stage in a fly's life comes after egg and larva, but before adult?
Pupa
In what country were scarab beetles considered sacred?
Egypt
What crop do boll weevils eat?
Cotton
What insect's rate of chirping can be used to approximate the temperature?
Cricket
+3
Level 86
Jan 20, 2018
Heresy! Millipedes are not insects, aaaarrrrgh. That question must be replaced. Also, Nymph should be accepted for pupa and caterpillars can become butterflys.
+1
Level 67
Jan 20, 2018
I agree that butterfly should be accepted for the caterpillar question.
+1
Level 84
Jan 20, 2018
Indeed, all insects are hexapods. Their subphylum is called hexapoda. Millipedes have about 769 too many legs, and lack the three distinct body sections of insects (see the question about what comes between the head and abdomen).
+3
Level ∞
Jan 20, 2018
Dumb mistake on my part. Now fixed.
+2
Level 77
Jan 24, 2018
From Wikipedia under "Complete Metamorphosis"

Many insects have a life cycle of egg-larva-pupa-adult. Some of these insects are:

Coleoptera: beetles

Hymenoptera: bees, wasps, ants, sawflies

Lepidoptera: butterflies, moths

Diptera: flies

Nymphs are more synonymous with larva and are only in "simple metamorphosis" which is basically where the baby insect resembles the larger insect, only smaller. Since flies begin as maggots and go through a complete metamorphosis, pupa is reserved for this type of metamorphosis. Thus, nymph should not be accepted.

+5
Level 76
May 19, 2018
Ah, but a caterpillar won't turn into a butterfly inside of a cocoon. Butterfly caterpillars metamorphose inside of a chrysalis.
+2
Level 75
May 19, 2018
Agree. Usually moths come from cocoons, butterflies come from chrysalises. Butterflies molt into a chrysalis that hardens while moths spin an outer-structure cocoon around themselves.
+1
Level 86
Dec 7, 2019
The chrysalis is the insect, not the cocoon.
+9
Level 86
Jan 22, 2018
For being absolutely petrified of insects, I know an awful lot about them. Forewarned is forearmed.
+1
Level 63
Feb 6, 2018
Exactly my thoughts.
+1
Level 63
Feb 6, 2018
#4 is called one-day-fly in my native language. So thanks for the month clue.
+1
Level 51
May 19, 2018
If "moth" is the correct answer, a more generally correct answer that would cover both butterfly and moth is "imago," the final stage of maturation, particularly among winged insects. (Thank you Bioshock 2).
+1
Level 55
Jun 16, 2022
Your definition of imago is spot on but it's not unique to moths and butterflies so it's really not specific enough for this question. All adult insects can be referred to as an imago.

"Lepidopteran" in reference to the Order name for moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) would be a better word to encompass them both :)

+2
Level 60
May 19, 2018
There are many quizzes where I am doing great and almost done with the answers, and then comes a stupid, hard and, to some extent, irrelevant question like "what crops do boll weevils eat?"
+3
Level 86
May 19, 2018
Oh dear! It seems that some of these trivia questions may be irrelevant!

On a more serious note, I think it's important for quizzes like this to have at least one "challenging" question. They should be able to distinguish between folks that really know this stuff and those who are generally knowledgeable but not in this area specifically. I usually don't get the challenge question right unless I really know that field, but I don't feel sore about it.

+9
Level 75
May 19, 2018
If you use cotton sheets, clothing, toweling, etc. that question shouldn't be irrelevant to you. if the boll weevil was not controlled, likely the price of your cotton goods would be higher. I live in a cotton-producing area and we are quite used to seeing cotton farmers check the boll weevil traps at the edges of their fields - the count lets them know whether or not they need to spray. Don't forget where your food and clothing comes from and the steps that are gone through to bring it to you.
+1
Level 73
May 23, 2018
You tell 'em, girl. Sometimes you just gotta drop a little "Bootheel" on folks.
+1
Level 28
Jan 9, 2019
great quiz
+1
Level 54
Sep 30, 2020
what's the difference between a cricket and a grasshoper
+1
Level 88
Feb 16, 2022
different species
+1
Level 17
Nov 30, 2022
Fleas are arachnids.
+1
Level 56
Nov 16, 2023
got all except the boll weevils... i don't even know what those are...