Insects

The Oldest Known Butterflies Existed Before Flowers

A new study raises intriguing questions about the evolutionary trajectory of butterflies and moths

Riley, future bug-cop.

Meet Riley, the Puppy Training to Sniff Out Bugs in Boston's Museum of Fine Arts

The Weimaraner will inspect incoming artwork for beetles, moths and other critters that can damage museum collections

All Praise The Humble Dung Beetle

By recycling and removing feces, these unsung insects make the world go 'round

A male peacock spider, Maratus robinsoni

How Peacock Spiders Make Rainbows on Their Backsides

The adorable arachnids use specialized scales to break light into its component colors to produce some of nature's tiniest rainbows

Habelia optata

This Fierce 508-Million-Year-Old Relative of Scorpions Had Five Jaws and Body Armor

A new analysis of <em>Habelia optata</em> could help us understand the history of modern arthropods

99-Million-Year-Old Tick That Feasted on Dino Blood Found Trapped in Amber

Sorry, there's no DNA left. But the find does provide the first strong evidence that the parasites preyed on dinosaurs

French wine became imperilled in the mid-1800s as twin pests from America swept through European agricultural regions.

How One Mycologist Saved France’s Wine (Among Other Things)

Bordeaux mixture saved many crops besides grapes from fungus

Gertsacov looking at one of his fleas.

Revive the Charm of an 1800s Show with These Modern-Day Flea Circuses

Take a trip to the (very small) Big Top

The Ten Best Photography Books of 2017

These eye-opening works invite us to find ourselves in history and nature

Stanford scientists are building up an archive of mosquito sounds.

Before You Swat That Mosquito, Record It on Your Cell Phone

That's the strategy behind Abuzz, a crowdsourcing project designed to track mosquito activity around the world

The way a fruit fly fires neurons could inform machine learning.

How Fruit Fly Brains Could Improve Our Search Engines

Fruit flies have a unique way of matching data, which could teach scientists to create better, faster search algorithms

How Mosquitoes Sneak Away After Feasting on Your Blood

Special wingbeats and long legs help mosquitoes take off without getting smushed

Over Three Quarters of Flying Insects Disappear From German Nature Preserves

A combination of habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change may be behind the dramatic three-decade decline

How Flowers Manipulate Light to Send Secret Signals to Bees

Come-hither blue haloes are just one of the effects employed by nature’s first nanotechnologists

Themira lohmanus

New Species of Fly Found Breeding on Central Park Duck Droppings

The creatures are likely drawn to the area by the high concentrations of duck poop

A horsehair worm seen in its adult state, in which it lives only to breed

This Jumble of Writhing Sticks Is Actually a Bizarre Parasite

Observed flailing around in Taiwan, this so-called 'alien' turns out to be a horsehair worm

Researchers Find 98-Million-Year-Old Horned Vampire Ant Encased in Amber

A newly described species of Hell Ant impaled its tiny victims on its reinforced horn and may have slurped up their bug blood

Tapeworms, like this one imaged using a scanning electron micrograph, weaken their victims but don't typically kill them.

The World's Parasites Are Going Extinct. Here’s Why That’s a Bad Thing

Up to one-third of parasite species could vanish over the next few decades, disrupting ecosystems and even human health

Harvey's Next Danger: Massive Mosquito Clouds

Standing water is breeding billions of post-hurricane mosquitoes, which could transmit diseases like the West Nile Virus

A member of the Myrmoteras genus of trap-jaw ants, with mandibles deployed.

Prying Apart the Mighty Bite of a Malaysian Trap-Jaw Ant

Its mandibles strike in a fraction of a blink of an eye, but how does it do it?

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