Monarch butterflies cover a tree at El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Michoacán, Mexico.
D. André Green II
Can a plan that brings together government and private landowners create enough habitat for monarch butterflies?
Sascha Burkard/Shutterstock.com
Finally we have a word to describe why wasps bother you in late summer: furlough.
Worker bees with capped brood (brown), open brood (white larva), all sorts of coloured pollen and shiny fresh nectar.
Cooper Schouten
A single colony of bees can have 60,000 bees in it. Together, they can visit up to 50 million flowers each day to collect pollen and nectar. They’re not called ‘busy bees’ for nothing!
The complex interactions that maintain group health inside a bee hive offer lessons for humanity during pandemics.
Rachael Bonoan
Life in a honey bee hive is all about cooperating for the collective good.
The European firebug was first discovered in North America in Utah in 2008 and has quickly expanded its range.
(Shutterstock)
Entomologists worried about invasive pests have thousands of curious community scientists posting their findings online — and identifying new species.
A swarm of giant Asian honey bees.
Rickythai/Shutterstock
Honey bees in the most polluted parts of an Indian city were more likely to die sooner and showed clear signs of poor health.
The Texas frosted elfin (Callophrys irus hadros ), a small butterfly subspecies found only in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, has lost most of its prairie habitat and is thought to have dramatically declined over the last century.
Matthew D. Moran
Recent reports of dramatic declines in insect populations have sparked concern about an ‘insect apocalypse.’ But a new analysis of data from sites across North America suggests the case isn’t proven.
When they suck your blood they can leave behind the parasite that causes sleeping sickness.
Patrick Robert/Sygma via Getty Images
This insect’s unique reproductive biology could lead to new ways to control the species in the environment – and prevent the deadly sleeping sickness it spreads to people.
Frank Wagner/Shutterstock
July 15, 2020
Rinke Vinkenoog , Northumbria University, Newcastle ; Katherine Baldock , Northumbria University, Newcastle ; Mark Goddard , Northumbria University, Newcastle , and Matthew Pound , Northumbria University, Newcastle
Urban green spaces can be a rich habitat for diverse pollinators, if they’re managed properly.
Swarms of locusts are seen on a tree in a residential area in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta on June 12, 2020.
BANARAS KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
Gene drive guarantees that a trait will be passed to the next generation. But should society use this tool to control insect populations?
Entomologist Brian Lovett examines flea beetle-infested potatoes in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Matt Kasson
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted interest in home gardening. Three scientists who garden explain some basic methods for controlling common insects and microbes that can spoil your crop.
Scarlett Howard
Past research has shown honeybees can add, subtract and even understand ‘zero’. But according to new findings, they can’t tell four flowers from five in natural settings.
Wildfocusphoto/Shutterstock
New research sheds light on the unsung heroes of pollination.
City gardeners are dependant on wild insects to make their gardens thrive.
(Shutterstock)
Victory gardens were popular during wartime, and have made a comeback during the current pandemic.
Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia japonica ) drinking sap from tree bark in Japan.
Alpsdake/Wikipedia
Are ‘murder hornets’ from Asia invading North America? A Japanese entomologist who’s been stung by one and lived to tell the tale explains what’s true about these predatory insects.
Are raccoons ravaging your radishes? Container gardens might be a good option for saving your plants.
(AP Photo/dpa, Patrick Pleul)
Pests can cause sudden and significant damage to homegrown food, but a little planning and intervention can help you cut your losses.
Paederus.
Ian Jacobs/Flickr
“Nairobi fly” are obvious due to their red and black colouration; these are warning colours of their toxicity.
A barn swallow scoops an insect from the pond’s surface.
Richard Seeley/Shutterstock
Ponds create ‘insect chimneys’ which are a boon for hungry farmland birds.
Fried locusts.
Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Eating locusts is an old strategy used to get food after locusts devastated crops, but things have changed.
A Rosalia longicorn – the chosen insect of 2019 in Hungary by the Hungarian Entomological Society.
EPA-EFE/Peter Komka
The largest study of insect declines to date gives us the best indication of how species all over the world are faring.