Eager to create a fascinating event for the entire family, Cornell’s department of entomology held its fifth annual Insectapalooza Insect Fair this Saturday, celebrating the diversity of insects, while showcasing current research in entomology.

Attractions included the “Live Butterfly House,” where children held and played with butterflies, and the “Cockroach Races,” where kids watched the popular pests race through tubes towards a finish line. While Insectapalooza was designed to be child-friendly, the fair was more than just fun and games. In addition to stimulating junior’s interest in entomology, Insectapalooza sought to share valuable findings in the field with adults.

The “Bugs in Bugs” exhibit, for example, was crawling with research. A particular area of interest is the interaction between Manduca sexta (commonly known as the Tobacco Hornworm) and Halyomorpha halys (commonly known as the Stink Bug). Stink Bugs are a natural predator of the Tobacco Hornworm and are sometimes used to prevent the Hornworm from destroying tomato and tobacco crops.

“What we are doing is studying the interactions between the Manduca sextas and the Stink Bugs and observing how the stinkbugs induce fear [in the Hornworms],” Scott McArt, grad, said. Because of its short life cycle and relatively accessible nervous system, Manduca sexta lends itself to such research.

When Manduca Sexta eventually turns into an adult moth, research in the entomology department undergoes a transformation of its own. Associate Prof. Robert Raguso, neurobiology and behavior, videotapes the moths and studies their behavior based on his footage.

“Our experiments have documented specific use of olfactory, visual and tactile cues by these moths, at different stages of nectar foraging behavior. We have found them to be remarkably flexible in their relative dependence upon visual versus olfactory inputs, and their ability to adjust innate preferences through experience,” he said. In other words, moths can be taught through conditioning, such as returning to the same place for food again and again.

At “What Does a Bug Think?”, a dissected cockroach was elaborately connected to an audio system, with the aim of illustrating how an insect’s brain works. There are approximately one million nerve cells in an insect’s brain, and each nerve cell makes anywhere between 100 and 1000 contacts with other cells throughout the insect’s body. In addition to the brain inside of their heads, insects have segmental brains (or ganglia) located in each segment of their body that process information relevant to that segment, before sending it up to the brain.

“The cockroach in this exhibit has been dissected to allow us to listen in on its nervous computations about the location of an air puff to sense organs called cerci at the back of its abdomen. These organs normally provide information about approaching predators and trigger an appropriately directed escape behavior,” Frank Rinkevich, grad, explained.

While this neural activity can easily be explained as a reaction to a stimulus such as air, its importance lies in the fact that humans process certain things such as voice, for instance, in an almost identical way. As a result, studying the nervous system of insects can provide valuable knowledge on the nervous systems of humans.

Yet another exhibit was the “Biotechnology and Crop Protection” information center which put on display research related to the modification of plants through biotechnology such as genetic engineering. Genetically engineered plants have been modified to possess a specific desirable gene, such as one that would create a resistance to certain destructive insects.

“Biotech broccoli,” for example, has been engineered to produce a protein found in a common soil bacterium. While insects that ingest this protein die, it has been deemed safe for human consumption.

Whether it is to educate visitors about some of the smallest members of this planet or to offer a delicious variety of “Cricket Cookies,” the department of entomology aimed to please with Insectapalooza, but also to educate.

“My kids love it so much that they talk about it for months and months after. They’re going to ask me when it is again all year, starting tomorrow … It’s great for kids and families,” Karen Dumont, a mother of two in attendance with her children, said.Buggin' Out: Children swarm the fifth annual Insectapalooza insect fair in Comstock Hall on Saturday, October 3.