All articles tagged with #insects
In a West Wales Wildwatch morning, volunteers and recorders identify a range of species—from a dark giant horsefly to marmalade hoverflies and a Rosa micrantha—before spotting a tortoise beetle larva whose prehensile anus forms a self-made fecal shield to deter predators, illustrating how dedicated citizen scientists uncover extraordinary wildlife in ordinary fields.
A Brazilian megaproject is surveying insects across a 10,000‑hectare central Amazon site from ground to canopy, deploying multi‑level traps and a blitz of methods. After 14 months they’ve collected about 5.5 million specimens, with around 600,000 slated for DNA sequencing, and preliminary data suggest as many as 40,000 species may inhabit this patch—roughly 0.7% of the world’s estimated six million insect species—work being carried out by ~400 taxonomists who will describe and name new species, often drawing on Indigenous languages, rivers and regional history.
Scientists tracking Chaoborus edulis in Lake Malawi found larvae descend more than 200 metres into the oxygen-free bottom layer by day to avoid predators, then feed at night; their reinforced air-filled buoyancy sacs actively adjust depth and resist crushing under pressure, a surprising adaptation that could help insects colonize pelagic marine environments.
A Kobe-based second-grader, Jo Nagai, with guidance from entomologist Dr. Martha Weiss, conducted home-based experiments showing swallowtail caterpillars can be conditioned to avoid a lavender scent after mild shocks, with 80% of the conditioned group later avoiding the scent as butterflies. Nagai then explored whether memories could be inherited by offspring, reporting preliminary evidence that memories may be passed to the next generation. He plans to present the findings to the Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society and hopes to pursue a career as an insect vet.
The White House South Lawn hosts an outdoor UFC event that could be disrupted by mid-90s heat, humidity, thunderstorms, and a swarm of insects. Dana White cites rain, lightning, and bugs as major risks, with an entomologist predicting abundant insects from midges to mosquitoes. A canopy will shelter fighters, but forecasters say weather could be the bigger challenge as fighters, including Michael Chandler, stay unfazed for the historic spectacle.
Texas has confirmed two new screwworm cases, a flesh-eating parasite that targets livestock, prompting renewed containment efforts across the state. The USDA is expanding sterile-insect programs and planning a large Texas facility to curb the outbreak, while Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller advocates using poison bait as a faster, local solution—despite concerns from experts about risks to other insects and even humans. The situation is tied to cross-border exposure from Mexico, and officials briefed at Kerrville’s U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory.
Meganeuropsis permiana and other griffinflies reached wingspans over 70 cm in an oxygen-rich Late Carboniferous–Early Permian atmosphere, but recent research suggests insect size was shaped by multiple factors—oxygen delivery, flight mechanics, and ultimately predation by birds and other aerial predators— meaning the giant-insect era ended as skies filled with competitors and oxygen levels shifted.
Finnish researchers report that bumblebees can spontaneously solve a box-and-banana–style task to reach a flower, showing goal-directed problem-solving without prior training. Across several designs, 16 of 22 bees succeeded when the task included visible training cues and barriers, while 23 of 30 succeeded in a test that limited visual feedback, with some solving without first moving the ball to an incorrect spot. The results suggest bees can generate novel solutions and demonstrate insight beyond reinforcement learning, laying groundwork for studying insect cognition further.
A 100‑million‑year‑old insect preserved in Myanmar amber has been named Carcinonepa libererrantes in homage to the K-pop group Stray Kids, notable for its rare crablike front claws likely used for grasping prey; CT scans helped place it among true bugs, highlighting convergent evolution with crustaceans.
A 100-million-year-old true bug preserved in Myanmar amber reveals front legs ending in crab-like claws, a rare feature found in only a few insect groups. Using micro-CT, researchers assign a new genus and species, Carcinonepa libererrantes, and infer a predatory lifestyle in a Cretaceous forest; the claws illustrate convergent evolution across distant lineages, highlighting the diversity of ancient ecosystems.
A Yale-led study shows garlic does more than repel pests: when fruit flies and two mosquito species taste the garlic compound diallyl disulfide, it activates the TrpA1 receptor and triggers bitter/ fullness signals that stop feeding and, crucially, reproduction. The effect is taste-based (not smell) and wasps lacking TrpA1 are unaffected. This points to garlic-derived compounds as targeted, safer pest-control tools, and the researchers also introduce phytoscreen as a simple method to screen plant substances for behavioral effects on insects.
Yale-led researchers screened 43 fruits and vegetables and found that garlic’s diallyl disulfide can disrupt mating and egg-laying in fruit flies, Aedes mosquitoes, and tsetse flies by acting on the taste receptor TrpA1, offering a cheap, safe avenue for eco-friendly pest control through phytoscreening.
A Royal Society B study tested 40 male and 40 female house crickets (Acheta domesticus) by applying a heat stimulus to an antenna and found they groomed the heated area significantly longer than controls, indicating pain-like responses beyond a reflex. With crickets being the world’s most farmed insect (about 370 billion annually), this suggests insects may have subjective experiences and underscores the need for welfare protections as giant-scale farming continues and concerns about animal suffering grow.
A Nature study argues that atmospheric oxygen did not limit the size of giant prehistoric insects. By examining tracheole density in flight muscles across species, researchers found oxygen delivery was not the constraining factor, suggesting other causes—such as vertebrate predation or exoskeleton constraints—helped shape why giants once dominated ancient skies.
German researchers found oak trees delay leaf-out by about three days after heavy caterpillar outbreaks, tracked with Sentinel-1 radar data over five years across 60 forests (137,500 observations). The delay reduces caterpillar survival and tree damage by about 55%, is more energy-efficient than producing extra tannins, and is reversible—showing trees actively adapt to biotic threats in a warming world.