All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Paper wasps object to dishonest face spots
Female wasps with dishonest faces, created by researchers who altered the wasps' natural status spots, have to cope with extra aggression.
- Animals
Song Fights
Birds settle many of their disputes by some rough-and-tough singing bouts, and recording equipment now lets researchers pick a song fight, too.
- Animals
Grow-Slow Potion: Pheromone keeps bee youngsters youthful
Researchers have identified a compound made by the senior workers in a honeybee colony that prolongs the time that teenage bees stay home babysitting.
- Animals
Color at Night: Geckos can distinguish hues by dim moonlight
The first vertebrate to ace tests of color vision at low light levels—tests that people flunk—is an African gecko.
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Nightlife: Marsupial meets mistletoe
A tiny marsupial in Argentina turns out to disperse mistletoe seeds, a job once presumed to be for the birds.
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Great tits inherit egg spots from mom
An unusual study of eggshell spots suggests that there may be a gene for spottiness on the great tit's female sex chromosome.
- Plants
Botany under the Mistletoe
Twisters, spitters, and other flowery thoughts for romantic moments.
- Animals
Birds may inherit their taste for the town
Tests switching cliff swallow nestlings to colonies of different sizes suggest the birds inherit their preference for group size.
- Earth
Wafting pesticides taint far-flung frogs
Agricultural pesticides blowing into California's wilderness areas have played a role in mysterious declines in frog populations.
- Animals
Poison Source: Toxic birds may get chemical from beetle
When some poisonous New Guinea birds eat certain tiny beetles, they may be stocking up on the toxic substance they use to defend themselves.
- Animals
Hide and See
A new look at fish on coral reefs considers the possibility that all that riotous color has its inconspicuous side.
- Animals
Dangerous Times: Guppies don’t follow rules for old age
A study of wild guppies suggests that life in a dangerous place does not automatically push evolution toward rapid aging as previously thought.
