All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Flea treatment shows downside of social life
The flealike parasites that build up in a shared burrow take an unexpectedly large toll on the ground squirrel's reproductive success.
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Is a Galápagos finch caught in a split?
An inland population of one of the famed Galápagos finches may become a new textbook example of the way in which two species emerge from one while still living together.
- Animals
How do female lemurs get so tough?
Female ring-tailed lemurs may get masculinized by well-timed little rises of prenatal hormones.
- Animals
Female moths join pheromone choruses
Female rattlebox moths can detect each other's male-luring pheromones and tend to gather in what may be a scent version of male frogs' chorusing around the pond.
- Animals
Underage Spiders: Males show unexpected interest in young mates
Male Australian redback spiders mate readily with females too young to have external openings to their reproductive tracts, a tactic that reduces the male's risk of getting cannibalized.
- Animals
Seabirds take record summer vacations
Sooty shearwaters that breed in New Zealand have set a new record for off-season travel, covering 64,000 kilometers between visits to their mating ground.
- Ecosystems
Fish as Farmers: Reef residents tend an algal crop
A damselfish cultivates underwater gardens of an algal species that researchers haven't found growing on its own.
- Animals
Crouching Scientist, Hidden Dragonfly
Although dragonflies are among the most familiar of insects, science is just beginning to unravel their complex life stories.
- Animals
Hot and hungry bees hit hot spots
New lab experiments suggest that bumblebees like warm flowers and can learn color cues to pick them out.
- Animals
Babbling Bats: Do pups talk baby talk as human infants do?
Young sac-winged bats make long strings of adultlike noises and could be the first animals besides some primates and birds that babble when they're babies.
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30 Hours with Team Slime Mold
A bunch of biologists volunteer for a mad weekend of biodiversity surveying to see what's been overlooked right outside Washington, D.C.
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Bee Concerned: Big study—Selective pollinators are declining
A new study provides evidence of a decline among some of Europe's insect pollinators and the wild plants that need them.
