There are over 5,000 species of cockroach, but fortunately only a few have chosen to live with us.
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Articles on Insects
Displaying 341 - 360 of 415 articles
Be thankful you aren’t a male redback spider.
Our homes harbour hundreds of species of insects and their relatives.
Fleas have lived with people for as long as people have lived with pets.
Satellite imaging can locate mosquito-friendly environments, allowing us to predict the advance of diseases they carry.
Why forensic investigators and evolutionary scientists love these blood-sucking insects.
The chance discovery of an enormous stick insect has led to a breeding program that might lead to a world record for Australia.
Next time you reach for the honey, spare a thought for the other vital insects that pollinate our crops.
To understand why insects sting and why the stings of such tiny animals hurt so much, we first needed a way to measure the pain they cause. So I created a sting pain index.
We should value even the tiniest insects that have no impact on our lives.
A good summer picnic, bushwalk or barbecue with friends and family can all be ruined by those annoying flies that never leave you alone. So what are they after?
They’re the soil-builders that allow Africa’s arid savannas to be lush grasslands. What do they do inside their huge mounds – and how does a collective mind allow them to do it?
Formlings are representations of flying termites and their underground nests. They are associated with botantical subjects considered by the San to have great spiritual significance.
Insects have been in a feature in agriculture since the end of the 19th century. Using a combination of new and old control methods is the best way to deal with our food competitors.
There is much more than just parasitic features when it comes to nematodes: these tiny creatures are vital to ecosystems.
Dung beetles have been cleaning up the planet for at least 65 million years. The 6000 species across the world have adapted to a life at the back end of the food chain in the most remarkable ways.
Without insects the food chain would diminish and we would have very little fruit and vegetables to eat.
Climate change means droughts will become more frequent, and butterflies will be particularly affected.
Continued use of pesticides will lower diversity of beneficial insects, costing corn farmers more money over time.
Around the world, waterbugs are the most widely-used indicator of environmental health and pollution of rivers, lakes and wetlands.
Top contributors
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Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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Lecturer in Ecology, University of New England
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Director of the Australian National Insect Collection, CSIRO
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Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University
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Associate Professor, Ecology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University
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Professor of Behavioural Ecology, UCL
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Postdoctoral Researcher in Mycology, West Virginia University
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Adjunct associate, CSIRO
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Biodiversity Management Officer, University of Sydney
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Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
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Senior Research Associate in Entomology, Lancaster University
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Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of Bath
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Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology; African-American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
