Insect Festival 2025

Overview

34 booths + grad student-led Ask a Scientist Cafe
3 food trucks
​150 faculty, staff, post-doctoral fellows, students
60 community Volunteers
4,000 visitors (approx.)

Theme insect

This year’s theme insect was the bordered mantis, Stagmomantis limbata), which can grow to three inches long. They are common across the southwest and are often seen in trees and bushes around Tucson. Mantids are ambush predators of other insects, which they catch and hold with their spiked forelimbs. Adult females are generally too heavy to fly as they devote most of their resources to producing egg cases filled with dozens of eggs.

Press