Will Hawkes
Researchers have been estimating the vast numbers of insects, including many pollinators, migrating at one location in the Pyrenees. But climate change and habitat loss could affect their abundance.
Robber flies visually track their prey before spearing it with their proboscis.
Paloma Gonzalez-Bellido
Not much is known about the predator fly Laphria saffrana. New research identified how they count the wingbeats of their favored prey, letting it slip out of focus before adjusting their heads.
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Early warm weather has triggered a bumper season for Australia’s 30,000 fly species.
The blow fly’s antenna is a specialized organ that helps the fly detect food quicker than its competitors.
heckepics/iStock via Getty Images
Flies often beat out competitors for food because of their specialized sensing organs called antennae.
A tsetse fly (Glossina sp) in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania.
Minden Pictures/Alamy
New research on what attracts blood-feasting flies to blue objects could help minimise the impacts of those insects on people and animals.
Many insects are attracted to wildfires and lay their eggs in the tissues of fire-killed trees.
(Aaron Bell)
If the spring fire season in Canada is any indication, fire-loving pyrophilic insects will continue to thrive well into summer.
Easter has its bunnies, but chocolate comes out for every holiday.
garytog/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Two food scientists, an entomologist, an anthropologist, a veterinarian and a historian walk into a bar (of chocolate) and tell bitter and sweet stories of this favorite treat.
Fly brains can process images very quickly.
www.shutterexperiments.com/Moment via GettyImages
Why is it so difficult to swat a fly? A team of insect experts explains how a fly’s sophisticated vision allows it to quickly react to visual cues.
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Forensic entomologists analyse blowflies and cocoon cases to help solve crimes.
The painful bites of female march flies can ruin your day at the beach. When we’re not there, they bite wallabies, birds, and even reptiles.
A fly regurgitating digestive juices.
Carlos Ruiz
A fly does some of its digesting outside its body before it even eats any food.
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New findings suggest the loss of fertility at high temperatures is a major threat to the survival of some species.
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Planting a garden for winter-active insects is a wonderful way to support local biodiversity. Your garden will thrive with the free pollination and pest control services the insects provide.
A floral scent can be enjoyable for a person, but it has an important job for the flower.
Richard L. Harkess
Not all flowers smell good, to people at least, but their scents are a way to attract pollinators.
Only 10%-20% of cacao flowers are pollinated.
carlosgaw/E+ via Getty Images
Entomologists wonder if the insects currently pollinating farmed cacao are the right ones for the task.
Sleeping on the job?
Maciej Olszewski/Shutterstock
Chemicals banned in the EU were recently granted an exemption for limited use in the UK.
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Summer can bring out the bugs. Here’s what to do if you miss a spot when applying insect repellent.
‘Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family,’ Swabian artist, c. 1470, and a picture showing a fly on U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence during the Oct. 7 debate at University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
(Wikimedia Commons/AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Flies have long held symbolic meaning in the history of art. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life.
Female stable flies make careful choices about where to lay their eggs.
Cosmin Manci/Shutterstock
Savvy female stable flies prefer to lay their eggs on donkey and sheep dung. Knowing where they choose to do this will help us manage disease.
Eyes surprise: fossil eyes from a 54 million year old cranefly.
Lindgren et al./Nature
Fossil flies from what is now Denmark reveal some striking similarities between insect eyes 54 million years ago, and our own vision today.