The Scariest Zombies in Nature

Parasites found in ant bodies tell us that Hollywood’s stories of the undead may be closer to truth than fiction
October 18, 2010 | By Brian Switek

Gargantuan Spider Webs Bridge Waters of Madagascar

As a young girl, I used to wake up in the middle of the night, frightened by a spider I knew had to be lurking in some dark corner of my room. For arachnophobes such as myself, nothing could be more unsavory than a big spider that blends seamlessly into tree bark. Unless that same spider also spins...
October 04, 2010 | By Jess Righthand

Ants Defend Trees from Elephants

I'm beginning to think that elephants are pretty wimpy creatures, especially for ones their size. First came the Mythbusters (video below), who demonstrated that elephants might really be afraid of little white mice. And now there's a study in Current Biology showing that ants deter elephants from ...
September 16, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

Cootie Catchers Say Lice Reveal Lots About Early Humans

Children all over America are returning to school this fall and I’m sure parents have done all they can to prep their youngsters—which hopefully involves any and all vaccines and boosters. But not even the most diligent efforts toward preventative health care can save your child from the bug that h...
September 13, 2010 | By admin

Ants Use Velcro to Catch Large Prey

Think about how you might try to catch King Kong: large numbers of people might help, but it takes coordination and a technological advantage—guns on planes—to bring the big guy down. Ants don't have guns or planes (not yet, anyway), so how can they capture something thousands of times bigger than ...
July 23, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

Radio-Tracking Orchid Bees in Panama

For the first time, scientists have tracked the movements of tropical orchid bees using radio-transmitters. The bees, studied at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, fly up to 3 miles from their home areas and patrol up to 285 acres of rainforest in their hunt for food and mates.J...
May 27, 2010 | By Brendan Borrell

Photo Contest Finalist: Spider in the Light of Daybreak

This photo, Spider in the light of daybreak, is a finalist in the Natural World category of Smithsonian magazine's 7th Annual Photo Contest. The image was taken by Csaba Meszaros of Budapest, Hungary. He writes:Velence is the second largest lake in Hungary and Sukoro is a village closely. I went o...
March 12, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

Odd Malaria Risk Factor: Drinking Beer

Here in the United States, we rarely have to worry that a mosquito bite will cause malaria. Like Canada, Australia, much of Europe and a few other places, we've been designated "malaria-free" by World Health Organization. Other places aren't so lucky. Nearly one million people died from the disease...
March 11, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

Spiders "Under The Influence"

It hasn’t taken much research (aside, I guess, from trial-and-error) to know humans under the influence of anything, from martinis to marijuana, tend to function less efficiently .But that doesn’t seem true for certain spiders, according to research done by William Eberhard, an entomologist at the ...
January 27, 2010 | By Erica R. Hendry

Picture of the Week—Spike-headed Katydid

Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, according to scientists who recently completed a study examining the park's plant and animal populations. A single hectare (2.47 acres) of land, for example, contains 655 tree species, more than you ...
January 22, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

The Birds and the Bees and the...Crickets?

Orchids of the Angraecum genus are famous—in evolutionary biology, at least—because of the comet orchid, A. sesquipedale, of Madagascar. After Charles Darwin examined this orchid, he hypothesized in 1862 that, based on the length of the flower's nectar-spur, there would be a a moth with an equally ...
January 14, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

Advice for Tarantula Owners: Wear Goggles

Eye doctors in England have some advice for tarantula owners: wear protective glasses when caring for your pet.The Chilean Rose tarantula (Grammostola rosea), the species of tarantula most likely to be found in your local pet shop, has tiny hairs on the rear portion of its body. If the spider feels...
January 04, 2010 | By Sarah Zielinski

Invasion of the Longhorn Beetles

In Worcester, Massachusetts, authorities are battling an invasive insect that is poised to devastate the forests of New England
November 2009 | By Peter Alsop

The Country's Most Dangerous Beetles

Invasive beetles of various colors and sizes have infiltrated U.S. forests, despite efforts by government experts
October 18, 2009 | By Sarah Zielinski

How Do Male Butterflies Know Which Cradles to Rob?

Zebra longwing butterflies (Heliconius charithonia) can be found flitting about the southern United States through Central and South Americas. Like several other species of the Heliconius genus, male zebra longwings often find a mate before she has emerged from the pupal stage of life, guarding her...
October 15, 2009 | By Sarah Zielinski

Picture of the Week — Ancient Spider in 3-D

Eophrynus prestivicii (left) and Cryptomartus hindi are species of spiders that lived about 300 million years ago. Discovering the details of their biology from fossils isn't easy, especially since these arachnids were only about an inch long. So scientists from England and Germany took more than 3...
August 07, 2009 | By Sarah Zielinski

The Hidden World of Ants

A new photo exhibit featuring the work of biologist Mark Moffett reminds us that we still live in an age of discovery
July 2009 | By Amanda Bensen

The Curious Do's and Don'ts of Insect Dating Behavior

Bugs tap, dance and buzz to attract their mates—and some get eaten
February 12, 2009 | By Abigail Tucker

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet

February 2009 | By Anika Gupta

Spiders Are Not As Old As We Thought

The oldest fossil spider was thought to be Attercopus fimbriunguis, which lived around 386 million years ago. But the scientists who discovered that fossil 20 years ago have found a few more in recent years and have now rethought their original conclusion. What they really found, they report this w...
December 24, 2008 | By Sarah Zielinski

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