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Early warm weather has triggered a bumper season for Australia’s 30,000 fly species.
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It’s spring, but many street trees look stressed and sick. Heat and insect attack are arriving early. But our cities are also steadily losing canopy cover.
Air pollution is the latest threat facing our insects.
Robbie Girling/Inka Lusebrink
We’re making life tough for insects – and not just by swatting them away with a newspaper.
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.
Wolfgang Hasselmann/Unsplash
Have we overlooked the intelligence and value of wasps?
You can help wildlife in your garden thrive if you just stop doing several simple things.
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Your less manicured garden has the potential to combat tackle climate change and help wildlife survive.
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.
Springtails (Fasciosminthurus quinquefasciatus) are found in any damp soil.
Andy Murray/chaosofdelight.org
With more than one species for every person on the planet, soils are the most diverse habitat on Earth.
Yellow underwing moths were one of the species in the study.
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But pesticides and climate change are threatening moths’ future.
The common pipistrelle.
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New research has found that bats avoid solar farms – but the findings should not hinder the transition to renewable energy.
A bumblebee flying over a blooming bramble bush.
Legonkov Vladimir
Native common wildflowers provide large amounts of pollen and nectar for insects – but many are undervalued by the public.
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Cicadas don’t need to bathe to stay clean.
The first specimen of Bipalium admarginatum was found by George Verdon in the jungle of a tropical island.
George Verdon
A strange worm found in the jungle, then harvested and preserved in… gin, provides a better understanding of the evolution and genetics of flatworms.
What strategies are the best to make forests more resilient and better adapted to new climate conditions?
(Claude Villeneuve)
Can planting trees help us solve the climate crisis? Probably, but to what extent?
Farmed landscapes have become less hospitable habitats for insects.
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Farms have become less friendly for our insect friends – this must be reversed if we want food to eat.
A tsetse fly (Glossina sp) in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Tanzania.
Minden Pictures/Alamy
New research on what attracts blood-feasting flies to blue objects could help minimise the impacts of those insects on people and animals.
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Picking the correct flowers is a crucial job for honey bees, so it’s no wonder they are incredibly efficient at it. But how can such little brains do it?
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.
Walkley Bank Allotments, Sheffield, UK.
Richard Bradley / Alamy Stock Photo
Maintaining a diversity of insects may be key for crop pollination in cities.
Female glow-worms attract males with a chemical reaction in their abdomen.
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Artificial light is making it harder for male glow-worms to find bioluminescent females.