Tonight’s entomological challenge concerns the following U.S. states:
For ten points, be the first person to pick the state that doesn’t belong in this group, and explain why.
The cumulative points winner for the month of January will win their choice of:
1) A guest post here on Myrmecos
2) Any 8×10 print from my insect photography galleries
3) A myrmecos t-shirt
Good luck!
Wisconsin, because they don’t have an official state butterfly (all the others have the Monarch, except Kentucky which got confused and selected the Viceroy by accident).
You actually inspired me to re-discover a mexican 50 peso bill that said it had Monarchs but actually had Viceroys 🙂
http://www.banknotenews.com/files/296c7c23f2bf07a7470d0259335a8d7d-175.php
Idaho. And I’ll make a guess that it’s far enough removed to have a different fauna than the other states.
Idaho, doesn’t have rivers or other waters as state boundaries.
Idaho’s the only one without a dep’t of entomology at their state university?
I think Morgan’s got it, but can I just state here and now that New Mexico deserves kudos for being the only state to select a true bad ass for an official insect—a Tarantula Hawk Wasp—and not lame, boring, every-other-state things like ladybugs and honey bees!
Idaho. Monarch butterflies in Idaho are from the western population overwintering in California.
Morgan got close. Two problems: (1) Wisconsin is not among the states shown. (2) The assertion that “all the others” except Kentucky have the Monarch as the state butterfly is an assertion about four of the six states, excluding the state you though was Wisconsin, since it was an assertion about “the others.” On the other hand, since Wisconsin is not in the list, making an assertion about all states in the list but Kentucky and Wisconsin does make an assertion that’s true of only 5 of the 6 states actually shown.
Minnesota, Wisconsin, what’s the diff? I’m playing the Canadian card now… 😉 But ya, that changes everything. All the states shown except Kentucky have the Monarch as the state butterfly.
At least you have that card to play. I thought the Kentucky figure was West Virginia and so almost went with my first thought: that all but Idaho were on the Monarch’s eastern migration route. Would that have been correct? I only realized otherwise upon encountering a list of the states having the Monarch as the state butterfly.
I’m going to guess Minnesota and then propose that it doesn’t have fire ants, but that’s almost assuredly wrong in a couple of ways.
For those having trouble identifying Kentucky: http://www.geekinheels.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/where_kentucky_is_on_map.jpg
That’s the most awesome thing I’ve seen all day.
The answer is Texas!
Texas is the only state there with native Atta.
So, it does not fit in.
For that matter, going back to the previous post, it looks like Idaho is the only one with no significant corn or soybean production.
I’m in agreement with Tim Eisele.
Another non-entomological reason why Idaho is the odd one out – it is the only state shown that is not drained in part by the Mississippi River watershed.
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Idaho also is the only one with a point over 3000m high.