BugFest<\/strong><\/a>, the largest one-day bug-centric event in the country, introduces Museum guests to a range of arthropods from North Carolina and around the world. Satisfy all your web weaving, wing flapping, dungball rolling, creepy crawling and bug munching pursuits in one day: Saturday, Sept. 17, 10 a.m.\u20137 p.m. It\u2019s in-person and free!<\/p>\nThis year, BugFest spotlights myriapods, the group of animals that includes millipedes and centipedes. If you feel a bit squeamish about all those legs, join special guest Derek Hennen, Entomologist and Myriapodologist from Virginia Tech, at 1 p.m. for a judgment-free guided tour through the myriapod tree of life. What\u2019s the difference between a millipede and a centipede? Are they friendly? How do they make my life better? These questions and more will be answered as you learn about the biology of these many-footed bugs that are all around us. In April, Hennen named a new species of twisted-claw millipede Nannaria swiftae<\/em> in honor of Taylor Swift, whose music Hennen says \u201chelped me get through the highs and lows of graduate school.\u201d<\/p>\nThroughout the day, BugFest offers live and preserved bugs from North Carolina and around the world, plus bug experts, games and activities (like Stag Beetle Battles and the Roachingham 500), live music, movies and presentations to entertain and educate the entire family. If looking at all the live insects makes you hungry, you can grab a plate of unique food at the Caf\u00e9 Insecta, where local restaurants offer a variety of free bug-filled fare ranging from Dirt \u2018n\u2019 Worms Donuts to Mealworm & Goat Cheese Hushpuppies.<\/em> And while eating bugs might sound weird, not eating bugs is even weirder. Bug-filled dishes have found their way into the culinary palates of up to 80 percent of countries on Earth. And yes, they\u2019re good for you.<\/p>\nAdditionally, at 2 p.m. you can hear from entomologist Paul Marek and his study of the leggiest animal on the planet, a 1,306-legged minibeast discovered last year in Western Australia. At 5 p.m., enjoy a free screening of \u201cThe Wasp Woman,\u201d a 1959 gem in which the head of a major cosmetics company experiments on herself with a youth formula made from royal jelly extracted from wasps, but the formula\u2019s side effects have deadly consequences. And don\u2019t miss the popular Caterpillarology Tent, where you can check out a huge variety of native North Carolina caterpillars from small, spine-covered stingers to large silk moth caterpillars. Learn which plants these hungry larvae love to eat, what they\u2019ll turn into when they transform into adults, and much more.<\/p>\n
More information at bugfest.org<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\nBugFest is brought to you by BASF, with additional support provided by Syngenta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":77824,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/77823"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/77823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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