Host Dave Schlom visits with Dr. Joseph Parker, entomologist and beetle expert and head of the Parker Lab at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Beetles are one of the most successful types of insects on the planet, found in nearly every possible environment. Parker shares his lifelong love of insects and beetles and talks about his work with Rove beetles. While most Rove beetles are free-roaming predators living in soil and forest litter around the world, some lineages have evolved in complex ways to live within ant colonies.
With a multitude of fascinating strategies, from chemical to behavioral and even anatomical adaptations, these beetles know how to get inside ant colonies by fooling the ants into believing that they are one of their own. It's a fascinating, strange, and complex world happening literally beneath our feet!
