Latest Entomology Stories
Researchers have come across the fossils of gigantic fleas in China. Diying Huang of the Nanjing Institute of Geology told the Associated Press (AP) they were lucky to come across the specimens. The fleas were discovered in a Chinese fossil market where they discovered they came from Daohugou in northeastern China, where a fossil bed from 165 million years was discovered. The fossil bed preserved the fleas in a brownish film of volcanic ash with grains of rock so fine that the most minute...
Researchers from the University of Melbourne report they have found that ant colonies share a collective memory for the odor of ants in rival nests. According to the new research, the ants use the information to identify the rival ants and compete, similar to how sports fans know each other by wearing their teams' colors. Study leader Professor Mark Elgar from the University's Department of Zoology said the ant colony's collective memory helps give an edge in a competitive world by...
Entomologists from the University of Illinois have discovered a new species of grasshopper-like insect in the tropical rainforests of Belize, apparently the first of its family to be found, naming it in commemoration of an ancient Mayan people who once lived in the region. The tiny hopper, Ripipteryx mopana, was discovered in the Toledo District in Belize. It was named after a tribe of Mayans known as the Mopan people. R. mopana measures less than 0.2 inches (5mm) long and is the...
[ Watch the Video ] Scientists have created a new type of housefly control device that has proven most effective in killing an insect that carries as many as 100 types of germs, researchers from the University of Florida (UFL) announced Wednesday. Flies have been known to spread diseases such as dysentery, typhoid fever and cholera, and they are often the first pests to occur in abundance when infrastructure is disrupted due to war or natural disasters, such as hurricanes or tsunamis....
[ Listen to the Recreation ] An international team of scientists took it upon themselves to recreate the love song of an extinct cricket that lived more than 160 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The song was reconstructed using microscopic wing features on a fossilized bush cricket (Archaboilus musicus) found in northeast China. The call of the Jurassic cricket was simple, pure and capable of traveling long distances in the night, scientists noted. The reproduced sounds...
[ Watch the Video ] To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers. U.S. defense agencies, which have funded this research, are supporting the development of bug-size flyers to carry out reconnaissance,...
[ Watch the Video ] Insects, equipped with complex compound eyes, can maintain a constant heading in their travels, some of them for thousands of miles. New research demonstrates that fruit flies keep their bearings by using the polarization pattern of natural skylight, bolstering the belief that many, if not all, insects have that capability. "If you go out in a field, lie on your back and look up at the sky, that's pretty much what an insect sees," said Michael Dickinson, a University...
According to a new report published in the journal Science, an international team of researchers has found a way to program ants to become so-called “supersoldiers”. And what’s even more exciting, say researchers, the hidden switch for unlocking the trait in ants might also be present in a number of other species. All ant colonies, like those of their fellow Hymenoptera wasps and bees, are organized into various classes known as ‘castes’, which include, soldiers, workers and,...
UA Insect Discovery program facilitators have spent years teaching Tucson area youth about the lives of insects while also encouraging them to pursue higher education and studies in science. The program is getting even more financial backing and other support. Holding a square, plastic container, Kathleen Walker turned toward the captivated group of dozens of elementary school students seated before her. She asked: "Do you think there's a cow in here?" The kindergarteners respond in...
How did insects get their hearing? A new study of 50 million year-old cricket and katydid fossils — sporting some of the best preserved fossil insect ears described to date— help trace the evolution of the insect ear, says a new study by researchers working at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. Insects hear with help from unusual ears, said co-author Roy Plotnick of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Grasshoppers have ears on their abdomens. Lacewings have ears on their...
Latest Entomology Reference Libraries
The Argema mittrei, more commonly known as the Comet or Moon Moth, is an endangered species. It is a native of Madagascar and that is the only place where one can observe them in the wild. This large silk moth can be bred in captivity and is one of the world's largest moths. Males have an average wing span of nearly 8 inches and a tail span of almost 6 inches. The lifespan of an adult moth is only 4-5 days and they are capable of reproduction from day 1. Their cocoons are uniquely...
A caterpillar is the larval form of a lepidopteran (a member of the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). Caterpillars are characterized by their long segmented bodies and many sets of "legs". They eat voracious leaf eaters and grow rapidly, During growth the caterpillar will shed its skin four to five times before pupating into its adult form. Caterpillars have six true legs (being hexapods) on the thorax, up to four pairs of prolegs on the middle segments of the abdomen, and...
Caelifera, a herbivorous insect, is a suborder of the order Orthoptera. Commonly called grasshoppers in English, the sub-order includes short-horned grasshoppers, grasshoppers and locusts. Characteristics The Caelifera have antennae that are shorter than the body, and short ovipositors. Those species that make easily heard noises usually do so by rubbing the hind femurs against the forewings or abdomen, or by snapping the wings in flight. Tympana, if present, are on the sides of the...
The superfamily Papilionoidea contains all the butterflies except for the skippers, which are classified in superfamily Hesperioidea. Some authors treat this grouping as a series (Papilioniformes) within a single superfamily that also includes the skippers. However, all are agreed that, although all the butterflies constitute a single monophyletic clade, a distinction needs to be made between the skippers and the rest of the butterflies. Compared with the skippers, in the families that are...
Katydid is the common name of insects belonging to the grasshopper family Tettigoniidae, which contains over 6,800 species. Katydid are also known as "long horned grasshoppers" and "bush crickets." The term "katydid" is used mainly in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. The name "katydid" comes from the sound produced by species of the N. American genus Pterophylla (literally "winged leaf"). The males of katydids have sound-producing (stridulating) organs located on their front wings which in...
