6,813 results
6,813 results for: Insects
- Animals
This butterfly is the first U.S. insect known to go extinct because of people
A 93-year-old Xerces blue specimen’s DNA shows that the butterfly is a distinct species, making it the first U.S. insect humans drove to extinction.
- Climate
Replacing some meat with microbial protein could help fight climate change
Just a 20 percent substitution could cut deforestation rates and land-use CO2 emissions by more than half by 2050, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Tardigrades could teach us how to handle the rigors of space travel
Tardigrades can withstand X-rays, freezing and vacuum. Now researchers are learning how they do it, with an eye toward human space travel.
- Animals
Viruses can kill wasp larvae that grow inside infected caterpillars
Proteins found in viruses and some moths can protect caterpillars from parasitoid wasps seeking a living nursery for their eggs.
- Paleontology
Fossils reveal that pterosaurs puked pellets
Fish scale–filled pellets found by two pterosaurs are the first fossil evidence the flying reptiles regurgitated undigestible food, like some modern birds.
- Animals
Assassin bugs tap spiders to distract them before a lethal strike
Some assassin bugs stroke their antennae on spiders when within striking distance, possibly imitating touches that spiders experience near their kin.
- Animals
Froghoppers are the super-suckers of the animal world
To feed on plant xylem sap, a nutrient-poor liquid locked away under negative pressure, froghoppers have to suck harder than any known creature.
- Life
‘The Last Days of the Dinosaurs’ tells a tale of destruction and recovery
A new book takes readers back in time to see how an asteroid strike and the dinosaur extinction shaped life on Earth.
- Animals
Focusing on Asian giant hornets distorts the view of invasive species
2021’s first “murder hornet” is yet another arrival. This is the not-so-new normal.
- Plants
A well-known wildflower turns out to be a secret carnivore
A species of false asphodel wildflower snags prey with gluey, enzyme-secreting hairs, leaving a trail of insect corpses on its flowering stem.
- Animals
An ‘acoustic camera’ shows joining the right boy band boosts a frog’s sex appeal
Serenading with like voices may help male wood frogs woo females into their pools, analysis of individual voices in a frog choir shows.
- Paleontology
Fossilized dung from a dinosaur ancestor yields a new beetle species
Whole beetles preserved in fossilized poo suggest that ancient droppings may deserve a closer look.
