Insectarium

Butterfly Effect: Can Monarchs Avoid Extinction?

Why are monarch butterflies disappearing? You may know them for their amazing migration, but over the past few decades, monarch butterflies have been part of a vanishing act that has scientists worried. Conservation biologists Ashley Fisher and Isis Howard show us what it takes to track monarch butterflies at an overwintering spot as they try to figure out what’s behind the population plunge.

Butterfly Effect: Can Monarchs Avoid Extinction?

11m 20s

  • How Mantises Became Nature’s Strangest Assassins: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Mantises Became Nature’s Strangest Assassins

    S1 E8 - 10m 50s

    Mantises may look unearthly, but they’re uniquely adapted to life on this planet. These incredible hunters have repeatedly evolved into “ecomorphs”—groups that aren’t closely related, but share incredible adaptations to similar habitats. This happens so consistently in their history that it’s almost baffling. Do these dazzling displays of convergence have something to tell us about evolution?

  • How Ants Make Our Cities Healthier: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    How Ants Make Our Cities Healthier

    S1 E7 - 11m 4s

    There are incredible miniature civilizations booming within our concrete jungles: ants! We don’t often think of urban areas as having “ecologies” but Amy Savage, Ph.D. studies the amazing diversity of ants making it work and how their newfound love of our cast-off carbs is making our cities greener.

  • Why Bumble Bees Are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Why Bumble Bees Are the Fuzzy Heroes We Need

    S1 E6 - 11m 4s

    If the insect world has a fuzzy, charismatic cutie, it’s surely the humble bumble bee. While insect populations are declining around the globe, bumble bees face unique threats that make them particularly vulnerable. Surveying projects across the U.S. are combining the forces of researchers and community scientists to help protect these critical native pollinators.

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