All Articles Tagged As: insects

Scientists Find New Clues to Explain Amazonian Biodiversity (7/24/2008)

Ice age climate change and ancient flooding - but not barriers created by rivers - may have promoted the evolution of new insect species in the Amazon region of South America, a new study suggests. ...> Full Article

Stink bugs are on the move across Pennsylvania (7/18/2008)

They're big, they're distinctively aromatic, and they're coming to a home near you. Stink bugs are on the move across Pennsylvania and may be staying for a while. ...> Full Article

Bees go 'off-color' when they are sickly (7/17/2008)

New study has important implications for understanding survival of bee colonies ...> Full Article

Wasps and Bumble Bees Heat Up, Fly Faster With Protein-Rich Food (7/12/2008)

Good pollen makes bees hot and wasps warm up too when they find protein-rich meat ...> Full Article

Biofuels and biodiversity don't mix, ecologists warn (7/9/2008)

Rising demand for palm oil will decimate biodiversity unless producers and politicians can work together to preserve as much remaining natural forest as possible, ecologists have warned ...> Full Article

Bee disease a mystery (7/4/2008)

Scientists are one step closer to understanding the recent demise of billions of honey bees after making an important discovery about the transmission of a common bee virus. ...> Full Article

Where Are You Now, My Love? (6/27/2008)

Discovery related to Japanese beetles' sex pheromones has implications for agricultural pest control ...> Full Article

Aquatic Insect 'Family Trees' Provide Clues About Sensitivity to Pollution (6/26/2008)

Rxamining an insect's "family tree" might help predict a "cousin" insect's level of tolerance to pollutants, and therefore could be a reliable way to understand why certain insect species thrive or suffer under specific ecological conditions. ...> Full Article

Taking the temperature of the no-fly zone (6/13/2008)

Research has implications for understanding disease vectors, mechanisms of pain and inflammation ...> Full Article

Newly Compiled Online Bee Checklist Allows Biologists To Link Important Information About All Bee Species (6/12/2008)

Researchers have identified nearly 19,500 bee species worldwide, about 2,000 more than previously estimated ...> Full Article

Honey bee dance breaks down cultural barrier (6/8/2008)

Asian and European honey bees can learn to understand one another's dance languages despite having evolved different forms of communication ...> Full Article

The secret behind silkworm's hardy stomachs (5/31/2008)

Silkworms have a unique ability to eat toxic mulberry leaves without feeling ill, and researchers have come one step closer to understanding why ...> Full Article

Researcher keeping track of ticks (5/27/2008)

Researcher is on the trail of tiny hangers-on this summer ...> Full Article

Scientists announce top 10 new species (5/26/2008)

Each year the IISE announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year. The Top 10 new species described in 2007 ...> Full Article

Monarch butterflies help explain why parasites harm hosts (5/17/2008)

Study of monarch butterflies and the microscopic parasites that hitch a ride on them finds that the parasites strike a middle ground between the benefits gained by reproducing rapidly and the costs to their hosts ...> Full Article

Ecologists tease out private lives of plants and their pollinators (5/7/2008)

Research explains the recent dramatic decline in certain bumblebee species found in the shrinking areas of species-rich chalk grasslands and hay meadows across Northern Europe ...> Full Article

Methuselah of the insect world to emerge in parts of Pennsylvania (5/6/2008)

One of the world's most mysterious insects is about to invade the skies over forest lands in central and eastern Pennsylvania ...> Full Article

Western Forests Highly Susceptible to Extensive Outbreaks of Bark Beetle (4/24/2008)

Lodgepole pine forests have characteristics that could lead to large bark beetle outbreaks in the western U.S. ...> Full Article

Insects use plant like a telephone (4/24/2008)

Communication between subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects ...> Full Article

Insects evolved radically different strategy to smell (4/14/2008)

Scientists find that insects use fast-acting ion channels to smell odors, a major break with the ideology of the field -- and evolution ...> Full Article

Playing dead is no game for ant survival (4/9/2008)

New study shows the age of victims determines how fire ants respond to aggressors ...> Full Article

High-flying moths don't just go with the flow (4/7/2008)

Enormous numbers of migratory moths that fly high above our heads throughout the night aren't at the mercy of the winds that propel them toward their final destinations ...> Full Article

One large organic shade-grown coffee, please - with extra bats (4/6/2008)

Bats and birds work night and day to control insect pests that might otherwise munch the crop ...> Full Article

Researcher says habitat destruction may wipe out butterfly migration (4/5/2008)

Intense deforestation in Mexico could ruin one of North America's most celebrated natural wonders - the mysterious 3,000-mile migration of the monarch butterfly. According to a University of Kansas researcher, the astonishing migration may collapse rapidly without urgent action to end devastation of the butterfly's vital sources of food and shelter. ...> Full Article

Darwin Told Us So: Researcher Shows Natural Selection Speeds Up Speciation (4/3/2008)

In the first experiment of its kind conducted in nature, an evolutionary biologist has come up with strong evidence for one of Charles Darwin's cornerstone ideas -- adaptation to the environment accelerates the creation of new species. ...> Full Article

Armed beetles find a mate, whatever their size (3/31/2008)

One species of armed beetle is proving that size doesn't necessarily matter when it comes to finding a mate. ...> Full Article

Small desert beetle found to engineer ecosystems (3/29/2008)

The catastrophic action a tiny beetle is wreaking on the deteriorating Chihuahuan desert ...> Full Article

Insects take a bigger bite out of plants in a higher CO2 atmophere (3/28/2008)

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising at an alarming rate, and new research indicates that soybean plant defenses go down as CO2 goes up. Elevated CO2 impairs a key component of the plant's defenses against leaf-eating insects ...> Full Article

Discovery explains how bees count (3/21/2008)

Researchers have discovered that our visual system can estimate number, just as it can guess size or speed. And they believe we see number in the same way we see colour and shape, and that other species, even bees, can do so too. ...> Full Article

Hissing Cockroaches Are Popular, But They Also Host Potent Mold Allergens (3/20/2008)

Insects' hard bodies and feces are home to many mold species that could be triggering allergies in the kids and adults who handle the bugs ...> Full Article

Royal corruption is rife in the ant world (3/18/2008)

Far from being a model of social co-operation, the ant world is riddled with cheating and corruption - and it goes all the way to the top ...> Full Article

Female katydids prefer mates 'cool' in winter and 'hot' in summer (3/17/2008)

Study determines flexible mating calls may contribute to ecological success of species ...> Full Article

Flying grasshopper discovered by student (3/16/2008)

A PhD student with a talent for discovering new species of insects has stumbled across an entirely new genus and species of flying grasshopper after examining fossils labelled 'stick insects' ...> Full Article

Research Team Uses Tiny Wasp to Wipe Out Major Agricultural Pest in Tahiti (3/15/2008)

Biological control decimates glassy-winged sharpshooter populations in French Polynesian islands ...> Full Article

Mystery behind the strongest creature in the world (3/13/2008)

The strongest creature in the world, the Hercules Beetle, has a colour-changing trick that scientists have long sought to understand. Research published today, Tuesday, 11 March, in the New Journal of Physics, details an investigation into the structure of the specie's peculiar protective shell which could aid design of 'intelligent materials'. ...> Full Article

Can moths or butterflies remember what they learned as caterpillars? (3/5/2008)

Butterflies and moths are well known for their striking metamorphosis from crawling caterpillars to winged adults. In light of this radical change, not just in body form, but also in lifestyle, diet and dependence on particular sensory cues, it would seem unlikely that learned associations or memories formed at the larval or caterpillar stage could be accessible to the adult moth or butterfly. However, scientists at Georgetown University recently discovered that a moth can indeed remember what it learned as a caterpillar. Their findings are published in the March 5, 2008 edition of the journal PLoS ONE. ...> Full Article

Bats and Bugs Share Aerodynamic Trick for Staying Aloft (2/29/2008)

Researchers have known for awhile that little whirlpools of air stirred up by insects' wing motions can help keep these small organisms aloft as they fly slowly or hover, two activities essential for food foraging. But how a weightier organism-a bat-manages to stay aloft during slow flight has remained unclear. ...> Full Article

Ants and avalanches: Insects on coffee plants follow widespread natural tendency (1/28/2008)

Ever since a forward-thinking trio of physicists identified the phenomenon known as self-organized criticality-a mechanism by which complexity arises in nature-scientists have been applying its concepts to everything from economics to avalanches. ...> Full Article

Fungus, caterpillars and parasitic wasps (1/25/2008)

Understanding survival of a species can be a lot more complicated than meets the eye because ecosystems are so interrelated. ...> Full Article

Trees, Ants and Elephants: Balance Gone Bad (1/22/2008)

researchers in Africa have a riveting tale of natural balance gone bad, with an unhappy moral for other ecosystems: This could happen to you. ...> Full Article

Ant parasite turns host into ripe red berry, biologists discover (1/17/2008)

A newly discovered parasite so dramatically transforms its host, an ant, that the ant comes to resemble a juicy red berry, ripe for picking, according to a report accepted for publication in The American Naturalist. This is the first example of fruit mimicry caused by a parasite, the co-authors say. ...> Full Article

Molecular Basis Of Monarch Butterfly Migration Discovered (1/12/2008)

Since its discovery, the annual migration of eastern North American monarch butterflies has captivated the human imagination and spirit. That millions of butterflies annually fly a few thousand miles to reach a cluster of pine groves in central Mexico comprising just 70 square miles is, for many, an awesome and mysterious occurrence. However, over the past two decades, scientists have begun to unveil the journey for what it is: a spectacular result of biology, driven by an intricate molecular mechanism in a tiny cluster of cells in the butterfly brain. ...> Full Article

Africa's biggest mammals key to ant-plant teamwork (1/11/2008)

Throughout the tropics, ants and Acacia trees live together in intricate interdependent relationships that have long fascinated scientists. ...> Full Article

Bee buzz could scare away elephants (10/9/2007)

Strategically placed beehives might offer a natural elephant deterrent in areas where humans are encroaching on elephant ranges, according to Oxford University scientists. ...> Full Article

Tracing a spidery family tree (9/26/2007)

Insect biologists research has taken her from Scotland to Hawaii to Berkeley. ...> Full Article