I entered a video into a contest being held by the Entomological Society of America.  My movie is a short educational film about the giant water bug Lethocerus medius hatching from its eggs.  Seeing as this blog is intended to be an educational blog, I thought I’d post the link here.  But first, let me define a few words that you might not already know so the video will make sense.

Chorion: the eggshell of an insect.  Why we can’t just say eggshell, I’m not sure.  We entomologists like our big words!

Operculum: a lid-like structure in a biolgical organisms.  Many insect eggs have operculums surrounded by weakened fault lines that allow the insect to push the top of the egg off easily when it is ready to hatch.  You can see the operculums in the giant water bug eggs in the video.  Look for the little egg caps that are pressed up against the faces of the bugs when they first start to squeeze out of the eggs!

If you have been following my blog, you probably already know what these terms mean: paternal care, back brooding, emergent brooding, sclerotize.  If not, click on the links to find the definitions in my glossary.

Without further ado, I present my video: Giant Water Bugs Hatching (Lethocerus medius)!

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