Big bugs, tiny worlds and wild discoveries
- Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University
From the food we eat to the water we drink, Yebo Gogga shows how the smallest creatures and natural systems help sustain life on Earth.
There are many butterflies that want to resemble the African Monarch Butterfly, also known as the “Plain Tiger”. With wings of brown, white, and orange, outlined in striking black, this butterfly has fed on toxic milkwood, making it highly poisonous and unpalatable to birds. This enviable potent defence is what several other harmless butterfly species have evolved to mimic.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s unofficial national butterfly (a beautiful dark butterfly with contrasting iridescent bands), the so-called ‘Table Mountain Beauty’, is an equally clever flying critter, being the sole pollinator of the iconic and endangered red floral emblem, the Red Disa, ensuring the latter’s survival.
These facts, relayed by the Lepidopterists’ Society of South Africa (LepSoc), had children and adults rapt. Run by enthusiastic volunteers, LepSoc shared their encyclopaedic knowledge of how butterflies have developed strategies to avoid being eaten.
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An eternal delight for kids and adults alike
LepSoc and all other exhibitors at this year’s Yebo Gogga Exhibition (13-17 May 2026) spoke to the theme “Food and Water”. The School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES) hosts this annual exhibition for children and awe-struck grown children (also known as adults).
Co-organiser Cheryl Dehning says that, apart from the many returning exhibitors, 47 new exhibitors signed up.
Looking down at the teeming crowd on the Saturday of the four-day exhibition, Dehning said that she’d never seen as many people. “I have liaised with so many schools this year. Thousands of children have come, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.” Dehning works with organiser Donald McCallum at APES, who has been running the show since 1997. The exhibition is intrinsically interactive and interdisciplinary, with physicists and grassland experts enticing visitors with games and experiments.
When food gets creepy-crawly
Screeching was heard, too, when insect experts told us how much protein giant cockroaches have and how delicious they can be when seasoned correctly. Indeed, McCallum enticed audiences by having them snack on the nutrient-dense Mopani worm. “Many people find eating bugs repulsive. But for many cultures, particularly those living in tropical areas, insects form a very important part of their diets,” he said. The list of species of arthropods (think scorpions, spiders and others with jointed legs) eaten worldwide is around 1900. Wasps, apparently, can be quite tasty.
Mahtaab Hayat, a lecturer in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Molecular and Cell Biology, which was represented at Yebo Gogga, helped bring cell biology, genetics and microbiology to life through simple, hands-on experiments.
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Eating at a molecular level
Learners were introduced to microscopes, bacteria and different stages of DNA extraction, and were shown how genetic differences can affect something as everyday as taste. One activity used PTC paper, which demonstrates how some people can taste a strong bitter flavour while others taste little or nothing, depending on their genetic make-up.
In another activity, learners blew bubbles into water containing a pH indicator, demonstrating how carbon dioxide in their breath changes the solution's acidity, turning the colour from blue to yellow.
“Our activities were designed to connect with the event’s theme, including the playful idea that ‘we eat at a molecular level’. This was a science twist on Gen Z slang, which basically means ‘to slay.’ Learners really loved this,” says Hayat.
Despite limited resources, Hayat says the team delivered engaging, memorable science activities that helped learners experience what molecular and cell biology looks and feels like in practice.
Even though some people may view science and the environment as difficult subjects to study, one thing is universal: no one likes the crunchy Mopani worm shell stuck stubbornly in their teeth, and everyone thinks the pink axolotl is cute.