wasps | Ask Dr. Universe | Washington State University

Why are butterflies considered a pest by some farmers? — Opemipo, 11, Texas

March 19, 2026 melissamayer

Dear Opemipo,

We usually think of adult butterflies. Those fluttery insects flit from flower to flower. They sip nectar and move pollen. They’re beneficial insects. They help plants and people.

But baby butterflies are another story.

I talked about it with my friend Dowen Jocson. She’s an insect scientist at Washington State University.

Young butterflies or moths are larvae, or caterpillars. They hatch from an egg deposited near a plant. Then they get busy eating and growing.

Caterpillars have jaws adapted for chewing. Their munchy mouths will change when they transform into adult butterflies. Then, they’ll have a straw-like mouth for slurping up … » More …

How many beetles are there in the world? – Tu, 12, Utah

March 16, 2023 melissamayer

Dear Tu,

If beetles seem to be everywhere, that’s because they are. Some beetles stand out because they’re colorful. Think about jewel beetles and ladybugs. Others play useful and weird roles in the ecosystem—like the poop-rolling dung beetle. Their ancestors probably even ate dinosaur poop.

Nobody knows exactly how many beetles there are, but scientists have some ideas. I talked about it with my friend Joel Gardner. He’s the collection manager for the insect museum at Washington State University.

When scientists find a new species, they describe what it looks like. They give it a name. They publish that information so other people know about it. That’s called describing a species. Scientists describe new insect species all the time.

Gardner told me scientists have described about 400,000 species of beetles so far. There are many more beetles we don’t know about yet. Altogether, there are probably between 1 million and 2 million beetle species.