6,697 results
- Animals
Sharpshooter threatens Tahiti by inedibility
A North American insect is menacing Tahitian ecosystems by getting itself killed and proving surprisingly toxic to its predators.
- Ecosystems
When Worms Fly: Insect larvae can survive bird guts
Insects can travel as larval stowaways in the guts of migrating birds.
- Animals
Cannibal Power: Mormon crickets swarm to eat and not be eaten
What keeps the great swarms of Mormon crickets rolling across the landscape may be a combination of nutritional deficits and the risk of getting cannibalized.
- 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
Scent Stalking: Parasitic vine grows toward tomato odor
A wiry orange vine finds plants to raid for nutrients by growing toward their smell. With video.
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This article raises the question of how oxygen levels have changed over the past 2 centuries, when carbon dioxide has been increasing. John MillsDecatur, Ala. There is a problem in this interesting article. The graph of oxygen content versus time doesn’t agree with the text. Specific example: “About 255 million years ago … the oxygen […]
- Animals
The Trouble with Chasing a Bee
Radar has long been able to detect high-flying clouds of insects, but it's taken much longer for scientists to figure out how to track your average bee.
- Animals
Crickets on Mute: Hush falls as killer fly stalks singers
Within just 5 years, singing has nearly died out among a population of cricket on a Hawaiian island.
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19620
While it is extraordinary that an unprotected insect larva survives gut passage, it is not the first demonstration that insects may be carried inside of birds. The larvae of phytophagous wasps living inside the seeds of the multiflora rose pass unharmed through the guts of mockingbirds. C.A. NalepaRaleigh, N.C.
- Math
Climbing a Watery Slope
A water-walking insect can propel itself up steep, slippery slopes without moving its legs.
- Animals
Sexually Deceptive Chemistry: Beetle larvae fake the scent of female bees
Trick chemistry lets a bunch of writhing caterpillars attract a male bee that they then use as a flying taxi on their way to find food.
- Humans
Letters from the February 4, 2006, issue of Science News
Double trouble? “Sleep apnea could signal greater danger” (SN: 11/26/05, p. 349) says that “twice as many … with sleep apnea had a stroke or died of that or another cause. …” This sounds serious, but your readers can’t correctly assign importance to “twice as many” because you omit numbers of deaths. David KollasTolland, Conn. […]
