This week’s Science Missions are all abuzz, highlighting projects that involve spying on the insect world in very different ways.

Many threats may plague the honeybees of North America. One of those is a parasitic fly whose larvae grow within bees sucking nutrients and energy from the bees until they burst from the disoriented bees. How widespread is this phenomenon? That’s what researchers at San Francisco State University and the Natural History Museum of LA County hope to discover. And they need your help through a citizen science project called ZomBeeWatch. Contributor Lily Bui introduces the project in her gripping post on the SciStarter blog.

If zombies aren’t for you, consider joining the Great Sunflower Project’s Backyard Bee Count, which takes place on August 11. Or celebrate National Honey Bee Day on August 18 and learn about other ways to get involved.

Prefer a different insect? Consider one of 14 butterfly citizen science projects that contributor Nick Fordes explores in a recent post on the SciStarter blog.

Beyond the insect world, this week millions of people lost sleep in the wee hours of Monday August 6 in anticipation of the first images sent to Earth from Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Are you one of those people? If so, you might peruse NASA’s Citizen Science Projects, and wait in anticipation of new projects that get the public involved with images and samples that are going to be collected by Curiosity.

Reminder: Calling all researchers and science team leaders! Are you looking for citizen science volunteers to help with research? SciStarter brings projects and people together. If you’d like your project featured, submit it to the SciStarter Project Finder for consideration by the editors.

Would you like to contribute to the SciStarter blog? If so, email Dr. John Ohab, Director of Community Engagement: john@scistarter.com. Would you like your project featured in the SciStarter Newsletter? If so, email Dr. Lisa Gardiner, Editor: lisa@scistarter.com.

Keep experimenting!