Farmland birds like the corn bunting have seen their numbers plummet since 1980.
Aurélien Audevard
Insect-eating birds such as swifts and yellow wagtails are particularly vulnerable.
Getty Images
There’s a lot of enthusiasm for wildflower fields and bug hotels. But before introducing these insect-saving measures, we need to better understand when they help – and when they don’t.
Théotime Colin
Australia is the last continent to be invaded by the dangerous honey bee parasite, and has an opportunity to be the first to eradicate it.
The Sooty blue butterfly (Zizeeria knysna ), a common yet easily missed resident species in grassland habitats.
Charl Deacon
Butterflies are sentinel species – their interactions with landscapes help scientists understand other insects better.
Kirill Demchenko/Shutterstock
We all know bees are vital pollinators. But they’re also art critics, social learners, dancers and so much more.
A bumblebee lands on the flowers of a white sloe bush.
Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images
Scientists are learning amazing things about bees’ sensory perception and mental capabilities.
Elvira Tursynbayeva/Shutterstock
Before you reach for the weed killer, spare a thought for struggling pollinators.
Spiders can be effective pest control agents.
(Shutterstock)
Spiders liquefy their prey in order to consume it, and this makes it challenging to determine what spiders eat. A new approach that uses DNA barcoding is helping researchers figure out spider diets.
Eventually weather, pests and disease will take their toll, but the story doesn’t end there.
Emanuel David / 500px via Getty Images
Even in death, a tree helps others live.
One distinction between a snail and a slug: The snail has a shell.
maxphotography/Moment via Getty Images
These members of the mollusk family may be slow, small and slimy, but they are an indispensable part of the ecosystem.
The yellowjacket wasp has a reputation as a British picnic invader.
Denis Vesely/Shutterstock
Think your social life is complicated? Consider the wasp.
Tomatito/Shutterstock
This new study could help researchers understand conditions such as autism and help fight climate change by reducing the carbon footprint of AI.
Are you ready to eat insects?
Lightspring/Shutterstock
To limit our impact on the planet, one solution could be to replace meat with insects. Children could set an example.
Ants from different colonies will fight based on smell alone.
Joseph Howell, Vanderbilt University
Researchers explore what happens when ants can’t properly use smell to detect friend from foe.
Justus Menke/Unsplash
Bees and other pollinators are key to food production, but they’re hard to keep an eye on. Now, AI software is helping track these essential farm workers.
Catherine_P/Shutterstock
New research from China shows how the loss of insects is destabilising food webs.
Julie Yates/Shutterstock
Tinkering around the margins of English farms won’t benefit biodiversity, research suggests.
The coquí frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui , is loud enough to wake people at night.
Éktor/flickr
From insects to birds to bats to frogs, these little loudmouths have found ingenious ways to deliver their messages at high volume.
Macronatura.es/Shutterstock
Despite their sharp-looking pincers, earwigs have a reputation for being tender parents.
Niassa Special Reserve in Northern Mozambique’s is just one of the continent’s under-mapped biodiversity areas.
Harith Omar Morgadinho Farooq
Huge swathes of Africa remain unstudied and their species undocumented.