All Stories by Susan Milius
- Plants
Orchid bends around to insert pollen
An orchid species in China has set a new record for acrobatics in self-pollination, twisting its male organs around and inserting them into the cavity where the female organ lies.
- Animals
Stilts for ants make case for pedometer
Changing the leg length of desert ants upsets their ability to judge distance, providing the first evidence in any animal of a built-in odometer based on stride.
- Animals
Live Prey for Dummies: Meerkats coach pups on hunting
Meerkats easing their pups into the job of handling live prey are among the few animal species shown so far to be natural teachers. With audio.
- Animals
Dawn Sneaks: Old birds sing early, cuckold sleepyheads
Among European birds called blue tits, older males join the springtime dawn chorus extra early—which may signal their charms to philandering females.
- Animals
Fishy Reputations: Undersea watchers choose helpers that do good jobs
Coral reef fish use smart-shopper techniques of looking for satisfied customers before choosing a small fish to provide cleaning services.
- Animals
Naked and Not
The Damaraland mole rat may be less famous than its naked cousin, but both have some of the oddest social structures found in a mammal.
- Animals
Mixed Butterflies: Tropical species joins ranks of rare hybrids
A South American butterfly is one of the few animal species that seems to have arisen via the supposedly rare path of crossing two older species.
- Animals
Leggiest Animal: Champ millipede located after 79-year gap
A millipede species that can grow up to 750 legs has turned up in California after decades with no sightings.
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Zits in tubeworms: Part of growing up
Young tubeworms pick up the live-in bacteria they need for nutrition in a rite of passage that starts with a skin infection.
- Earth
Pumped-up Poison Ivy: Carbon dioxide boosts plant’s size, toxicity
Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could make poison ivy grow much faster and become more toxic.
- Animals
Lobster Hygiene: Healthy animals quick to spot another’s ills
Caribbean spiny lobsters will avoid sharing a den with another lobster that's coming down with a viral disease.
- Animals
True-pal lizards may show odd gene
Colorful lizards in California may offer an example of a long-sought evolutionary factor called greenbeard genes, a possible explanation for altruism.
