Clearly the most popular answer. Most students likened the praying mantis to professor Maahs because of the physical resemblance (including bald dome). Others, however, tied in the fact that this particular insect has a rather rude post-mating ritual.

"Professor Maahs would be a praying mantis that feeds on the fear and anxiety of students."

"I would say you would have to be a praying mantis. Even though all I know is that they kill their mate when they are done with them...it seems appropriate."

Ah yes, the dung beetle. I guess I should have seen this one coming. The second most popular answer allowed student to (somewhat) legitimately curse on a final exam. Some students went the extra step and also drew the Packers and or the Geo Metro into the answer.

"A dung beetle for an ability to take students' (expletive) and turn into something useful."

"A dung beetle. Now hear me out, you're the (expletive) as a teacher, you like a (expletive) football team, and you drive a piece of (expletive)."

"Professor Maahs would be a dung beetle, because he eats, drinks, dreams, and lives for such a (expletive) team like the Packers." Comment: pro Minnesota team cheer omitted from this answer--I have to have some editorial standards.

"Professor Maahs would be a dung beetle because like dung beetles, Packers fans are all full of (expletive)."

Wasp and bee answers largely alluded to the sting of the exams ...a more creative student with what I suspect may be a discovery channel addiction, embellished a bit.

"If Prof. Maahs were an insect I would liken him to a wasp. Some species of wasps reproduce by injecting their eggs into other insects heads. When the eggs hatch, the larvae slowly devour the brains of the insect and pop our in a "Alienesque" fashion, immediately killing their host. This can be likened to the off topic stories that Prof. Maahs is fond of telling. Though entertaining, these stories that he routinely injects into students' brains no doubt kill brain cells and eventually lead to the academic death of the student through thoughts of 'What the hell, I really don't need to hear about his kids.'" Comment: I'm going to go ahead and guess that at best, I am the SECOND leading cause of brain cell deaths among my students.

The choice of spider was a mix of physical resemblance (daddy long legs), the stinging/biting (brown recluse), and general "yuckyness."

"If professor Maahs was an insect, he would be a daddy long legs because during the semester at those points when he talks about something that's not too interesting, you may want to squish him, but in the end of it all you realize that there's no reason too--he wasn't that bad."

"If Maahs were an insect, he would be a spider because he takes great joy in scaring the crap out of students, but isn't as scary as he tries to seem. In fact, he's mostly harmless, and if provoked is most likely just to make you ill for a while. Except spiders have more hair. Or a dung beetle because they're funny bugs and for other obvious reasons."

Again--the physical resemblance thing.

"If Prof. Maahs was an insect, he would be a walking stick. They are big, skinny, and when you see one, you just have to stop, look, and say, 'What in the hell is that?'"

There were only two cockroach answers, but this one was particularly well thought out.

"If professor Maahs was an insect he would be a cockroach. He seems to always be here. He never takes a sick day or misses work cause of the Geo dying. He is a nuisance, always correcting our grammar and typos in our papers. No matter how witty of a comment you have he always has a better one. No matter how often you spray or squash it, it always comes back. Even after the world ends in a nuclear Holocaust, he will still be there grading our papers and correcting errors." Comment: That is because students would still be turning in papers with poor grammar.

There were a few crickets. Some picked up on the bald dome and/or green (Packers) colors. This one speaks to the vocals:

"Cricket, because when you stand in front of class and lecture every morning, you're like the cricket outside my window that won't let me sleep when I'm friggin' tired!"

Only one Asian beetle answer, but it wins the award for most concise.

"It looks harmless like a lady bug but its bite is viscous."