2022 Booth Descriptions
Welcome and Information Desk
Directions to your best festival experience are at the east entrance of ENR2 - near the food trucks!
Directions to your best festival experience are at the east entrance of ENR2 - near the food trucks!
The Hyles Booth brought to you by Dr. Cristina Francois, director of Audobon's Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch.
Come learn all about this year's theme insect, the white-lined sphinx moth, from our local expert.
Come learn all about this year's theme insect, the white-lined sphinx moth, from our local expert.
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Digger bees on Tumamoc Hill, AZ.
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Pollinator Paradise brought to you by the laboratories of Dr. Dan Papaj and Dr. Judie Bronstein.
One-third of our food requires the services of animal pollinators, which usually means insects such as bees. We will have videos and live specimens available, and provide information about insects as pollinators. |
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Tohono Chul
Learn more about native bees with all sorts of fun activities at Tohono Chul's Native Bee Workshop! |
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The Poetry of Insects brought to you by Marc Goldfeder.
Let the insects inspire your inner creative writer. |
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The UA Insect Collection brought to you by collections manager Gene Hall.
The Insect Collection is a preserved history of insects from across the Sonoran Desert, providing researchers valuable information about what species are here, where they are found, and lots more. Learn about how the Collection preserves insect specimens and seeds scientific breakthroughs. |
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Build A Bug brought to you by the laboratory of Dr. Kathleen Walker and the Insect Discovery Program.
You’ve probably made sandcastles or towers before, but have you ever built a bug? Stop by our Build-a-Bug booth and create your very own insect! Design and craft together a bug of your own…and show off your creation to your friends! |
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Social Insects brought to you by the laboratory of Dr. Anna Dornhaus.
Some insects live together permanently in large groups and are called social, while others are solitary. Social insects live in colonies that may have a few dozen members or hundreds of thousands. They work as a team to build a nest, find food and care for the young. Ants, termites and some bees and wasps are highly social and their colonies are well structured and efficient. Come meet the social insects and learn about the ways they organize and work together at our booth. |
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Photo: Prud'Homme lab
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Fruit Flies Like A Banana brought to you by the laboratories of Dr. Luciano Matzkin and Dr. Todd Schlenke.
The Fruit Fly booth will let us take a closer look at the little flies that love your fruit bowl, your glass of wine, and the rotting cacti in your backyard. We will learn what's unique about their biology, what challenges they face in nature, and how they've helped us humans understand basic biological principles. |
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Insects as Food brought to you by the laboratory of Dr. Yves Carrier.
We feed the world with insects and provide information on insects as food. Whether you've never intentionally eaten an insect or they're your favorite snack, stop by our booth to enjoy a selection of tasty edible insects. Afterwards you'll brag to your friends "I ate a bug... and I liked it!" #IEatBugs |
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Honeypot Ants brought to you by Michele Lanan.
Honeypot ants have evolved a storage superpower! Specialized workers called repletes spend their life hanging from the ceiling of nest chambers deep underground. Foragers bring home sugary liquids such as nectar and honeydew and regurgitate it for the repletes to drink. The repletes expand their first stomach, called the crop, to many times its normal size to hold all of the ant honey. Then, during the winter, droughts, or other hard times, they regurgitate the stored food to feed the colony. Come see these amazing Sonoran Desert ants up close at the Insect Festival to learn more about their incredible abilities! |
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Desert Dangers brought to you by Laura Morehouse.
Poison, venom, danger! Come learn about the creepy-crawlies of the desert with the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center. |
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Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium
Come play the table top version of the Roly-Poly Rollers game from our Wild World of Bugs exhibit. Visit our booth to discover all that Flandrau has to offer for birthday parties, field trips and more! |
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Arthropod Zoo brought to you by John Palting and the laboratory of Dr. Wendy Moore.
Arthropods are animals with an external skeleton (exoskeleton), segmented bodies, and jointed paired appendages. They have existed since the Cambrian period over 500 million years ago. Surviving groups of arthropods include crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimp), arachnids (spiders, scorpions, mites), myriapods (centipedes and millipedes) and insects. The Moore lab is home to the Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP), which aims to document arthropod species diversity across SE Arizona. Our Arthropod Zoo booth will feature live representatives of the diverse arthropods found all around Tucson! |
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Backyard Vampires brought to you by the laboratory of Dr. Michael Riehle.
Meet the most dangerous animal on earth … the mosquito. Mosquitoes kill more than one million people every year and sicken hundreds of millions. See these insects up close and learn what you can do to control them and prevent the transmission of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus. |
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Busy Bees brought to you by the USDA Bee Lab.
Honeybees pollinate many of our crops and also provide us with delicious honey. Explore the inner world of these social insects and learn all about what makes a hive tick. |
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Bug Brains brought to you by the laboratory of Dr. Wulfi Gronenberg.
Insects and spiders have brains?!? They sure do! Bug Brains features an opportunity to get inside the heads of your favorite tiny (and not-so-tiny) Sonoran desert insects. |
Southeast Arizona Butterfly Association (SEABA)
SEABA is the local chapter of the North American Butterfly Association having monthly meeting and field trips which welcome beginners. We will exhibit some of our local butterflies and moths and have some live caterpillars as well.
SEABA is the local chapter of the North American Butterfly Association having monthly meeting and field trips which welcome beginners. We will exhibit some of our local butterflies and moths and have some live caterpillars as well.
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Transgenic Crops for Pest Control brought to you by the laboratories of Dr. Bruce Tabashnik and Dr. Xianchun Li.
Application of pesticides to control crops pests often yields multiple side effects such as killing of non-target organisms (birds, bees, natural enemies, etc.) and environmental pollution. To overcome these side effects, a new approach of pest management -- transgenic crops with pest-killing genes inserted -- has been adopted to protect crops from pests for over a decade. The purpose of this booth is to share the science behind transgenic crops. |
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The Joy of Roaches brought to you by the laboratory of Dr. Kathleen Walker and the Insect Discovery Program.
Roaches are ancient, useful and beautiful. Come meet these misunderstood and cuddly creatures! 
Madagascar hissing cockroaches.
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Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Visit our booth to get up close and personal with some of our live backyard buggy neighbors, and even play a guessing game! ¡Los esperamos en nuestro puesto para divertirnos, participar en un juego, y conocer a nuestros abundantes pequeños vecinos en vivo! |
