Animals
- Animals
Termites, not fairies, cause plant circles in African deserts
Underground insect engineers create water traps in the soil, allowing rings of green grasses in the sand.
- Animals
Native pollinators boost crop yields worldwide
Farms with crops from coffee to mangoes don’t get the best yields if they rely solely on honeybees.
- Animals
How weaver ants get a grip
Strong sticking power and quick reaction time help the insects stay put in trees.
- Animals
Sea slug carries disposable penis, plus spares
A hermaphroditic gastropod sheds its penis after one use, then uncoils another.
- Animals
Compared with rodents, bat species carry more viruses
Viruses that can jump from animals to people may find the flying mammals a fine place to lurk.
- Animals
Mole sniffs the world in stereo
Nostrils of the common mole recognize slight differences in smells to steer it toward its food.
- Animals
Cats kill more than one billion birds each year
New analysis doubles estimate of avian death tolls, revealing that hunting felines take bigger bite out of wildlife than expected.
- Animals
Dung beetles steer by the Milky Way
The insects orient themselves using starlight, researchers find in planetarium experiments.
- Animals
Finally, the truth about barnacle sex is revealed
A genetic analysis shows that the sessile crustaceans can broadcast sperm in water, contrary to previous assumptions.
- Animals
Integrative and Comparative Biology
The hormonal roller coaster that is male pipefish pregancy and collision safety features for flying insects.
- Animals
Claims of fairness in apes have critics crying foul
A report that chimps divvy up rewards much as people do draws criticism.
- Science & Society
Insect illustrator
Taina Litwak is an “art department of one” in D.C. for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Systematic Entomology Laboratory.
