NEW ENGLAND WILD FLOWER SOCIETY”S

BIG BUGS MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (below)

1. Why does a bee dance?
   1. He’s happy.
   2. He’s at a party.
   3. He’s telling the location of nectar-bearing flowers.
   4. He’s just finished taking dance lessons.

2. Where do Monarch Butterflies go when they migrate?
   1. To mountaintops in rural Mexico
   2. To Las Vegas
   3. To Disney World
   4. To Nantucket

3. Honey is produced by
   1. Sweet flowers
   2. Sweet people
   3. Honey factories
   4. Honeybees

4. If you could hop as well as a grasshopper, how far could you jump?
   1. 1 foot
   2. 3 feet
   3. 90 feet
   4. 15 miles

5. About one-third of our spring woodland wildflowers have their seeds spread by
   1. Wind
   2. Water
   3. Ants
   4. Grasshoppers

6. When bees visit flowers, they are often looking for
   1. Nectar
   2. Pollen
   3. Nectar and pollen
   4. A place to hide from enemies

7. How many individual ants are there in the world?
   1. 75
   2. 1,250
   3. 50,000
   4. 10 million billion

8. Luna moths have no
   1. Mouths or stomachs
   2. Ears
   3. Eyes
   4. Feet

9. What is the first step bugs take to defend themselves from predators?
   1. Boxing
   2. Jumping around
   3. Camouflage
   4. Running home to mom and dad

10. Monarch butterfly caterpillars
    1. Can survive only if they eat the leaves of milkweed plants
    2. Can eat only the leaves of plants with pink flowers
    3. Can eat everything, just like the “Hungry Caterpillar”
    4. Can eat only at mealtimes

Answers-

1. c. Bees dance to tell the location of nectar-bearing flowers. The turns and wiggles of the dance describe the location of flowers, relative to the position of the sun.

2. a. Monarch Butterflies migrate to the mountaintops of rural Mexico. A butterfly may travel 50 miles a day and up to 2,000 miles to get to one of five official wintering sanctuaries.

3. d. Honeybees make honey in their hives. Some native bees like bumblebees also make honey, but just enough to feed their young.

4. c. Given our comparative height, if you could hop as well as a grasshopper, you could jump about 90 feet.

5. d. Ants can carry 20 times their own weight. They are attracted to the seeds by a little glob of fat attached to some of our spring wildflowers. They eat the fat and toss out the seeds, which helps to spread them through the forest.

6. c. Bees sip the nectar and often take pollen too, as a food for their developing young. The nectar is made into honey to feed the hive.

7. d. There are about 10 million billion ants in the world, more than all the rest of the insects put together.

8. a. Luna moths have no mouths or stomachs. They do not eat and only live about one week.

9. c. The first line of defense used by bugs is camouflage. They blend in with their surroundings and predators tend not to notice them.

10. a. Monarchs are “picky eaters” and only can survive if they eat the milkweed leaves. The leaves contain a nasty-tasting chemical which helps protect the monarchs from predators.