You may hardly feel a raindrop, but for some tiny insects, one drop can have an intense impact.
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Microplastic pollution is a growing problem − one lab is looking at tiny insects as inspiration for how these pollutants might move through water.
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Each year insect scientists like us field questions from the press and public about Christmas beetle populations: where have they gone?
West Nile virus is spread by mosquitoes. About 80 per cent of infected people have no symptoms, but the virus can cause encephalitis and can be life-threatening.
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
West Nile virus arrived in North America in 1999 and spread across the continent by 2005. Here’s what you need to know about this mosquito-borne pathogen.
The blow fly’s antenna is a specialized organ that helps the fly detect food quicker than its competitors.
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Flies often beat out competitors for food because of their specialized sensing organs called antennae.
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.
Spiders can be effective pest control agents.
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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.
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Nigerians are fond of beans but they need to preserve them without using toxic chemicals.
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New research from China shows how the loss of insects is destabilising food webs.
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Wet weather is great for some species of bugs. But Christmas beetle swarms look to be a thing of the past
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A small congregation of the cockroaches was under the first rock scientists looked under, by sheer accident.
Mosquitoes need to feed on blood in order to reproduce. But how do they choose whom to feed on?
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Mosquitoes can track down potential hosts using the CO2 released by humans’ metabolic processes, a medical entomologist explains.
A fly regurgitating digestive juices.
Carlos Ruiz
A fly does some of its digesting outside its body before it even eats any food.
The diaphanous wings and striking markings of this parasitic wasp (Arotes decorus) belie its gruesome nature.
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Parasitic wasps are body-snatchers — if you’re an insect. But these much-maligned creatures have saved millions of human lives by controlling the spread of the cassava mealybug.
Campers at the “Mosquitoes & Me” summer camp in Des Moines, Iowa, learn about mosquito science through hands-on outdoor activities.
Katherine R. Bruna
A hands-on approach to learning about bugs can help students from urban communities take an interest in science.
June bugs can be serious pests of ornamental and agricultural plants, lawns and golf courses, or they can be a crunchy snack for a bird — or human.
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There is much more to these chunky beetles of early summer than what first meets the eye.
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Learn how cicadas, the world’s loudest insects, create their cacophony, and why people in ancient Greece and ancient China admired them.
Dragon springtails (pictured) are widely distributed in forests of eastern Australia — yet they’re still largely unknown to science.
Nick Porch
Australia’s invertebrates have an ancient lineage and a fascinating evolution. Get up close with macrophotography to discover tiny, unique animals you’ve probably never seen before.
Swarms of locusts are seen on a tree in a residential area in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta on June 12, 2020.
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Gene drive guarantees that a trait will be passed to the next generation. But should society use this tool to control insect populations?
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.
Disinfecting an area takes time and effort. And there is only so much you can do.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
The coronavirus, like many infectious diseases, can live and spread on inanimate objects in the world around us. An epidemiologist explains how and gives some advice on how to minimize the risk.