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Insects

Incredible: This Underwater Spider Has an Actual Scuba Tank

The scuba spider is the only arachnid to live exclusively underwater, despite lacking gills. Its secret is a makeshift oxygen supply

Several armed guards accompanied Luiz Rocha and his colleagues throughout their work in Somaliland.

Meet the Researchers Who Scour the World’s Most Dangerous Corners in Search of Biological Riches

Militants, malaria and pirates are just some of the challenges these scientist-explorers face in their quest to map the world’s diversity

Dried cohineal insects from the author's study

The Bug That Had the World Seeing Red

How a Mesoamerican insect once created the globe’s most coveted color

A painted lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui, one of thousands of insect species that migrate over southern England

New Research

Researchers Record Trillions of Migrating Insects Swarming Through the Skies

Though bugs make up a large amount of biomass, little was known about their migrating habits, until now

This Devoted Mother Is Also a Cockroach

Female giant burrowing cockroaches look after their young for up to six months. In an eight-year lifespan, they can produce around 150 young

Spectacular Footage of a Butterfly Leaving Its Cocoon

The transition from caterpillar to butterfly is a process that consists of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult

Watch This Mother Tick Lay 1,500 Eggs

The birthing process for a female tick is very involved. Once she’s matured, she can take up to 20 days to lay her eggs

The offspring of mosquitoes like this one could soon be toast thanks to a new trial in Florida.

Trending Today

Florida Officials Will Release Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Fight Zika

The Florida Keys are the latest front on the war against the virus

Cool Finds

Collection of Fossilized Poo Certified as World’s Largest

George Frandsen’s 1,200-piece coprolite collection earns the Florida man a spot in Guinness World Records

Why Do Insects Hate the Smell of Peppermint?

The stick bug primarily depends on its camouflage to avoid predators. But when enemies get too close, this insect deploys peppermint as a last resort

Watch a Bombardier Beetle Mace a Praying Mantis

Praying mantises are adept at ambushing their prey with their specialized legs and swift reflexes

The tongue-eating louse will leave you speechless.

Hollywood Has Nothing on These Real Life Halloween Horror Shows

Face-unfurling, chest-exploding, zombie-making fiends: They’re all around us

Yes, Spiders Eat Spiders

Portia spiders, known for their remarkable intelligence, have some of the most astonishing hunting skills in the arthropod community

Silkworm cocoons

New Research

Feeding Silkworms Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene Makes Super-Tough Silk

A diet rich in graphene or carbon nanotubes causes the creatures to produce a fiber twice as strong as normal silk

Could your next teacher be a bumblebee?

New Research

Bumblebees Are Tiny Teachers

The fuzzy, buzzy creatures are capable of more than you might think

Hello, I am goat.

What Living Like Goats and Badgers Can Teach Us About Ourselves

Two Englishmen won the Ig Nobel Prize for eating grass, earthworms and worse in the name of science

Trending Today

Mexican Police Raid Sawmills to Protect Monarch Butterfly Habitat

Federal authorities closed down seven illegal logging operations near the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Michoacán

"Hey guys this sugar is great, but where can we find some morphine?"

Addict Ants Show That Insects Can Get Hooked on Drugs, Too

How researchers got a non-mammal hooked on drugs for the first time

Will Knight of Knight's Spider Web Farm in Vermont

This Farm Harvests Spider Webs for Art

Knight’s Spider Web Farm is Vermont’s original “web site”

Euploea butterflies gather in force in valleys around the country.

Where to See Thousands of Fluttering Butterflies in Taiwan

There’s a reason Taiwan is known as the “butterfly kingdom”

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