Bugs

Blickling Hall is listed in Britain’s earliest public record, the Domesday Book, which was written in the 11th century. The house was at one point the home of Geoffrey Boleyn, grandfather of Anne Boleyn, who may have been born there around 1507.

Historic British Mansion Fights Moths With Tiny Parasitic Wasps

The moths eat wool and silk, putting historic artifacts—like a tapestry gifted to the house by Catherine the Great—at risk

Bogong moths were traditionally ground into pastes or cakes. Pictured here are a single moth (left) and thousands of moths resting on a rock (right).

Aboriginal Australians Dined on Moths 2,000 Years Ago

The discovery of an ancient grindstone containing traces of the insect confirms long-held Indigenous oral tradition

Tangle-web spiders can catch prey up to 50 times their size thanks to their pulley system-like hunting strategy.

Small Spiders With Big Appetites Use a Pulley System to Catch Large Prey

New research and videos show how spiders in the Theridiidae family hoist up prey 50 times their size

Catnip and a plant called silver vine, Actinidia polygama, are not closely related, but both make cats go wild.

Felines May Use Catnip for More Than Just Euphoria

The plant may keep pesky mosquitos away

Pets consume an estimated 26.6 million metric tons of pet food each year, contributing 64 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere annually.

Kibbles and Bugs? Purina Just Launched Pet Food Made of Fly Larvae

The move is meant to diversify how the company obtains protein for its products

Rattlesnakes can bite after death.

14 Fun Facts About Frightening Animals

From snakes that eat their prey alive to primates that inject their peers with flesh-rotting venom, these are the scariest deeds committed by critters

The ogre-faced spider earns its name from its large eyes and mandibles.

How Ultra-Sensitive Hearing Allows Spiders to Cast a Net on Unsuspecting Prey

Sounds trigger the ogre-faced spider to backflip and shoot a silk trap on other insects

A diabolical ironclad beetle can withstand the crushing force of 39,000 times its own body weight.

The Secrets of the Diabolical Ironclad Beetle's Almost Unsquishable Strength

Researchers hopped in a Toyota Camry and drove over the beetle twice...for science—and it survived

Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops.

First Live ‘Murder Hornet’ Captured in the U.S.

Scientists aim to eradicate Asian giant hornet nests in the next few weeks so that the insects do not establish a population on the West Coast

The emerald ash borer first appeared in Michigan in 2002.

Invasive Pest Threatens Future of North American Ash Trees

A new study shows that ash tree populations are not growing fast enough to replace the trees killed by ash borer larvae

The spotted lanternfly has landed. This adult was seen in Pennsylvania, hard hit by the alien species.

Can Scientists Stop the Plague of the Spotted Lanternfly?

The voracious, shape-shifting insect native to Asia is attacking crops, vineyards and trees

The first infestation of spotted lanternflies in the U.S. was found in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 2014.

Invasive Spotted Lanternflies Reach Eight New Jersey Counties

The insect is an 'excellent hitchhiker,' says the New Jersey Department of Agriculture

Bat ticks (Ornithodoros) under a microscope. These parasites primarily feed on bats and were collected from bats roosting beneath a Mayan Temple in Belize. Very little is known about these ticks and many species are unknown to science.

Why We Need to Save the Parasites

Extinction will have lasting and far-reaching consequences for biodiversity, and subsequently for humans

Quantum physicist Amruta Gadge became the first to create a Bose-Einstein Condensate—the exotic, elusive fifth state of matter—remotely.

Five Scientific Achievements That Happened During Coronavirus Lockdown

Quarantine did not stop these innovators from discovering new species, creating the elusive fifth state of matter remotely, and more

Emily Simpson's character in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" shows off a diving beetle in front of the virtual museum.

Join a Smithsonian Entomologist and the Monterey Bay Aquarium for This Beetle-Centric 'Animal Crossing' Livestream

Airing on the aquarium's Twitch channel at 4 p.m. EST today, the two-hour session will focus on the video game's diverse insect population

Featured insects include the Picasso moth, the violin beetle, the green milkweed grasshopper and the cuckoo wasp.

The World's Most Interesting Insects

A new title from Smithsonian Books highlights the diversity of Earth's 10 to 100 million insect species

Two giraffes

Fourteen Fun Facts About Love and Sex in the Animal Kingdom

Out in the wild, flowers and candy just aren’t gonna cut it

The rain brought relief from fire, but coaxed funnel spiders from their hideouts.

Australia Rains Bring Relief From Fires—and a Surge in Deadly Spiders

Encouraged by wet and hot conditions, male funnel-webs spiders are venturing out to find mates

Iridescent spots found on the dot-underwing moth suggest that even nocturnal insects might rely on visual cues

How These Nocturnal Moths Sparkle at Night

The nocturnal insect might flash its reflective spots at a potential mate

No need to flee for this nasty little critter.

Some Moths Taste So Bad That They Don't Bother Fleeing From Bats

A new study offers an explanation as to why some moth species fly erratically in the face of danger, while others do not

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