What bug stabs its lover with its penis to mate? Which ones make good robots or dinner? Answers to these questions and many more are buzzing your way this week courtesy of a new free online course on bugs and humans.
The University of Alberta launched a new massive open online course (MOOC) Thursday called Bugs 101: Insect-Human Interactions. The free 13-part course takes a deep dive in to the weird world of insects and how they interact with humans.
U of A entomologist Maya Evenden said she and her fellow researchers organized this course to teach people about the importance of bugs and to highlight bug research in Western Canada.
The course discusses the vast diversity of insects (which make up about half of all named species) how they work, and how they interact with humans, the latter of which includes looks at honeybee farms, forensic investigations, flying robots, Spider Man, and fried grasshopper tacos.
Evenden said her favourite part of the course was the section on insect reproduction. Some bugs give gifts or practice elaborate dances to find mates or use chemical signals humans can mimic to lure pests into traps. Others have bizarre or horrific mating practices, such as the “traumatic insemination” performed by male bedbugs.
“They basically take their penis and jab it through the abdomen of the female,” Evenden said, and deposit the sperm there.
The course notes how many insects are under threat or endangered due to pollution, global heating, habitat loss, and other factors. That’s a big concern, as insects are essential pollinators, decomposers, and food sources for the rest of the world.
“You might not notice them there, but they’re super important,” Evenden said.
Evenden said she hoped people would gain a better appreciation of the importance of insects through this course, which would be offered as an in-person course to U of A students starting this fall.
The course is available at coursera.org/learn/bugs-101.
