Szefei / www.shutterstock.com
Honeybees are responsible for only a third of crop pollination in Britain.
A giant swallowtail butterfly feeds from the flower of an alternate-leaved dogwood.
(Nina Zitani)
We’re in the middle of an Insectageddon. But a garden of native plants can help insects, as well as birds and other wildlife.
Insects are constantly adapting to methods used to control them.
Shutterstock/Alf Ribeiro
Farmers needs a way to manage harmful insects without destroying the ecological balance.
Looks …. tasty? Roasted crickets are shown at the Entomo Farms cricket processing facility in Norwood, Ont., in April 2016. Loblaw has added cricket powder to its lineup of President’s Choice products.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Thornhill
Canada’s biggest grocery chain is now selling cricket flour under its revered private label. Here’s what that says about contemporary eating habits.
Flies will often sleep on the underside of leaves, to escape from heat and predators.
Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
Flies need good grip because they often sleep upside down.
Spider silk is a bit like a cross between steel and rubber.
Mai Lam/The Conversation NY-BD-CC
Some spiders produce silk than can actually be stronger than steel and 50 times as light.
Flowers above, traps below.
Clyde Sorenson
Venus flytrap plants have ‘traps’ that snap shut on insect prey. But they also rely on insects for pollination. New research suggests how the plant avoids eating its allies.
A giant ant carries a dead fellow in the name of cleanliness.
Dupont/Wikipedia
Ants produce their own antimicrobial chemicals to fight bacteria.
What goes in must come out.
Sugiura & Sato, Kobe University
Meet the brawny bug with a concoction so caustic it’ll make a toad vomit.
A fly’s eye view of a rapidly approaching swatter.
Cameron Webb (NSW Health Pathology)
Why are flies so easily able to evade our attempts to swat them?
Shutterstock
Lepidoptera insects are at least 70m years older than we previously knew.
Cimex lectularius.
CDC/Wikimedia
Bed bugs make us shudder and cringe. So arm yourself with the courage to learn about the biology and successes of Cimex lectularius – as well as the ways to get rid of it.
play4smee/Flickr
If warmer weather is your sign to reach for the pesticide, think again. From better soil to your own army of beneficial bugs, here are five reasons to put down the insect spray.
Gory and gross, insects use disguises to improve their odds of survival.
(Pixabay)
Some insects wear gory disguises and macabre masks year round, not just at Halloween.
Shutterstock
Researchers are warning of a wipeout of huge numbers of insects. What’s the evidence behind this alarm?
shutterstock.
Killing insects, as the Big Wasp Survey asked people to do, contributed to many vital advances in science.
Bees usually get nectar from flowers, but sometimes they steal it from the nests of other bees.
Flickr/Michael Cheng
Bees sting other animals, including humans, when they think there might be a threat to their hive. But Evie, age 8, wonders if bees ever accidentally sting other bees.
Peacock butterfly (Inachis io) photographed at Thésée-la-Romaine, France.
Daniel Jolivet / Flickr
The caterpillar and the butterfly: two forms, a single individual? A biologist and a philosopher explore this paradox.
Whiteflies - Africa’s main cassava pest causes damage to crops.
Maurice/Flickr
Crop losses in African countries due to insect pests are estimated at 49%. However, with some species losses can climb up to 100%.
Monarch caterpillars feeding on milkweed leaves and dropping their faces (taken in the laboratory facility).
Prayan Pokharel
Bugs use their own defecation to defend their young, locate their homes and increase mating opportunities. For humans, insect faeces may even have untapped medicinal properties.