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Insects

This twisted wing parasite is one twisted killer.

The Everyday Cannibals and Murderers of Los Angeles

Who needs film noir when you’ve got these insects in the City of Angels?

Cool Finds

When Becoming a Man Means Sticking Your Hand Into a Glove of Ants

Young men must subject themselves to a ritual involving bullet ant-filled gloves not once but 20 times

New Research

Plants Can Sense When Insects Are Eating Them

Plants can sense munching vibrations that insects make, and respond accordingly with heightened defenses

Buck moth caterpillars are the bane of the New Orleans spring.

New Research

Caterpillars Beware: Venom Won’t Protect You From Clueless Baby Birds

Young birds will dumbly peck at anything that crawls their way—even if it winds up teaching them a painful lesson

Blood-sucking kissing bugs carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, a malady that plagues some 9 million people in Latin America.

New Research

A Blood-Sucking Foe Lurks in Central American Caves

Kissing bugs, which can spread Chagas disease, turned up positive for human blood meals in caves in Guatemala and Belize

A carrion beetle fossil from the Cretaceous period.

New Research

Carrion Beetles Were the First Caring Parents

Flesh-eating beetles that lived 125 million years ago set the stage for modern parenting

An urban spider hangs out in downtown Los Angeles.

New Research

Friendly Neighborhood Spiders Get Bigger in Cities

A study of orb-weaving spiders in Australia shows a correlation between urbanization and fatter arachnids

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Art Meets Science

Old Time Portraits of Parasites

Photographer Marcus DeSieno uses antiquated techniques to take pictures of parasites with a mix of citizen science and monster movie panache

Adult Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) with gathered insect prey. This is one of the fifteen species shown to be affected by elevated imidacloprid concentrations in surface water in the Netherlands.

New Research

Popular Pesticides Linked to Drops in Bird Populations

This is the latest in a string of studies suggesting that some pesticides impact birds as well as pollinators

New Research

Malaria Parasites Might Make Their Infected Hosts Smell Tastier for Mosquitoes

So far, the finding has only been shown in mice

Cool Finds

Giant Moths Have Descended on Malaysia, And No One Knows Why

Giant moths are making a mass appearance in Southeast Asia

New Research

When Fire Ants Build Rafts, There Are No Free Loaders

When fire ants form floating balls, not a single leg or antennae goes to waste

Forest in British Columbia that has borne both fire and beetle infestations

Cool Finds

Beetles Have Destroyed 38,000 Square Miles of Forest

As part of this year’s farm bill, the United States Forest Service will try to rehabilitate beetle-infested forests

Moo-ve over mosquitos, your next bug spray may be cow cologne

Cool Finds

This Cologne Makes Cows Smell Like Humans, So Mosquitos Bite Them Instead of Us

California company receives Gates Foundation grant to explore a unique kind of pest control

New Research

Fewer Honeybees Died Last Year, But Not Enough to Save Them

If losses continue at the same rate, honey bees in the U.S. won’t survive on the long term

Cool Finds

In an Emergency, We Act Like Ants

Like many animals, we tend to clump together when danger presents itself

Cool Finds

Butterflies And Bees Drink Crocodile Tears

To the delight of winged invertebrates, crocodiles cry when they eat

Cool Finds

Mosquitoes Kill More Humans Than Human Murderers Do

From a human perspective, this makes them the deadliest animal in the world by far

Cool Finds

When Museum Specimen Get Infested With Bugs, Curators Have to Freeze Them

Freezing and heating can oftentimes keep invertebrate enemies at bay

Female on top: A female Neotrogla insect mates with a male in a cave in eastern Brazil.

In This Community of Brazilian Cave Insects, Females Wear the Penises, Literally

A genus of insect that inhabits caves in eastern Brazil has reversed sex organs, say scientists

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