Assassin takes gold

Meet the winners of this year's Ugly Bug Contest

| 1 min read

The aptly named assassin bug, known for injecting toxic saliva into its prey's innards before sucking out the nutrients, has taken the crown in this year's linkurl:Ugly Bug Contest,;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57798/ accumulating more than 10,000 votes (30 percent).

linkurl:Assassin bug;http://askabiologist.asu.edu/assassin-bug

Northern Arizona University forestry and natural sciences researcher linkurl:Marilee Sellers;http://www.cefns.nau.edu/Academic/Biology/Faculty/MarileeSellers.shtml started the contest, designed to entice kids of all ages to have fun learning about the creepy-crawlies of the world, more than 10 years ago with some posters featuring high quality electron micrographs of insects.

linkurl:Yellow dragonfly;http://askabiologist.asu.edu/yellow-dragonfly

Now fully up-to-date with videos and social media pages for each insect contestant, voting is open to the world. This year the contest's 10 arthropod hopefuls attracted more than 36,000 votes -- more than quadruple last year's tallies.

linkurl:Jewel wasp;http://askabiologist.asu.edu/jewel-wasp

With 27 percent of the votes, second place went to the mighty yellow dragonfly, which spends its youth underwater breathing through gills. And the jewel wasp, noted for its parasitic reproductive strategies, took third with 25 percent. Click linkurl:here;http://askabiologist.asu.edu/activities/ubc to see the rest of the runners up.

Photo credits, Therry The, Marilee Sellers and Page Baluch.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Which bug is ugliest?;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/57798/
[4th November 2010]*linkurl:Bugs vs plants vs bugs;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57635/
[26th August 2010]*linkurl:Insect gut has mind of its own;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57568/
[22nd July 2010]