Latest Insect Stories

Cicadas - better known for providing the soundtrack of our hot summer are remarkably interesting animals, they are the longest living insects "“ 17 years for some species "“ but spent 99% of this time underground to then emerge for a few weeks, reproduce and finally die. Now a study of north-African and Mediterranean cicadas by scientists in Portugal and the UK uncover yet more interesting data on the group by revealing that these species although differentiated by their mating calls (and...

Early relatives of spiders that lived around 300 million years ago are revealed in new three-dimensional models, in research published today in the journal Biology Letters.Scientists at Imperial College London have created detailed 3D computer models of two fossilized specimens of ancient creatures called Cryptomartus hindi and Eophrynus prestvicii, closely related to modern-day spiders. The study reveals some of the physical traits that helped them to hunt for prey and evade predators.The...

Chemicals camouflage bugs, pitcher plant colors don't help attract prey, specialist caterpillars survive better than generalistsAnimals and plants communicate with one another in a variety of ways: behavior, body patterns, and even chemistry. In a series of talks at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting, to be held August 3-7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ecologists explore the myriad adaptations for exchanging information among living things.Bugs pretending to be ants are...

Increasingly, human urban development overlaps with habitat for wild animals and plants, creating environments that degrade natural landscapes. But people, animals and plants all have in common the need for healthy, sustainable freshwater ecosystems. In a series of presentations at the Ecological Society of America's Annual Meeting, ecologists present research results that guide efforts to balance an increasingly urbanized society with the need to conserve and protect water and aquatic...

An official with the Ohio Department of Wildlife said a rare pink katydid that was slated to go on display at the Ohio State Fair has been killed by a wasp. Jim McCormac of the Ohio Division of Wildlife said the katydid, discovered July 19 at the Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area in Wyandot County and slated to go on display at a fair, which began Wednesday, was killed after a parasitic wasp injected its eggs into the insect and the offspring ate their way out, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch...

If it were up to Jessica Hellmann, insects such as butterflies and beetles would wield just as much conservation clout as traditional conservation icons, such as polar bears, tigers and dolphins.Why?"Animals such as polar bears, tigers and dolphins are tremendously important, but mostly because they help define how we think about our relationship with the natural world," says Hellmann. "But when it comes to the functioning of ecosystems, insects are where it's at."Why...

A bizarre New Zealand bat that is as much at home walking four-legged on the ground as winging through the air had an Australian ancestor 20 million years ago with the same rare ability, a new study has found.The discovery overturns a long-held held view that the agile walking and climbing skills of the lesser short-tailed bat - Mystacina tuberculata "“ evolved in the absence of any ground-dwelling mammal competitors or predators, says an international team of researchers led by Dr Suzanne...

Armored crickets have a strange yet remarkable way of defending themselves from being attacked, squirting out toxic blood from tiny gaps in their body and then throwing up to make themselves unpalatable to predators.While a few other insect species, such as beetles and katydids, actively bleed when attacked, the benefits of such extreme measures were not clear. New research shows the strategy does indeed work in deterring predators such as lizards.  Armored ground crickets (Acanthoplus...

Extreme wet weather in some parts of the United States has caused an increase in mosquitoes and their bites, which can cause disease like West Nile. David Mizejewski of the National Wildlife Federation says since the pesky biters start life out as aquatic larvae in standing bodies of water -- as little as one-inch of water -- it's best to get rid of hot beds for mosquito reproduction. These include clogged gutters, flower-pot drainage dishes, play equipment, tarps and debris. A birth bath...

After 10 years of biochemical and molecular analysis of the Tyrrhenoleuctra plecoptera that live in the Western Mediterranean, Spanish and Italian scientists have now demonstrated that one of the insect populations of this group is a distinct and, therefore, new species.The researchers, including a team from the University of Granada (UGR), used biochemical and molecular techniques for a decade to detail the taxonomical and phylogenetic relationships of the insects of the Tyrrhenoleuctra...