Ladybirds do not have tails because they have no backbones.
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Articles on Insects
Displaying 241 - 260 of 422 articles
Alarm bells went off when several recent studies reported mass insect die-offs in different parts of the world. But reports of an ‘insect apocalypse’ have been greatly exaggerated.
New species are being discovered all the time, which only adds to the problem of knowing how many there are on the planet today. It also helps to know what we mean by species.
Researchers are only beginning to understand the impact of pollution and increased temperatures on the biology of mosquitoes.
Bees might not be able to survive inside a person’s eye, but they can be drawn to disgusting food sources.
Amid the insect extinction crisis, some species are actually increasing. Here’s why that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Ticks are generally inactive in the winter and start to look for their next meal as temperatures warm up. But as winters warm, every season may become tick season.
Champagne celebrations with a new species discovery for beetle scientists may not be the best move – you’d be drunk all the time. But it’s still important work.
A bee the size of a human thumb was first described in Victorian times, but hadn’t been seen since 1981. That is, until four biologists teamed up on a trek to Indonesia’s North Molucca islands.
For human planting to support bee diversity, we need to know which flowers the insects want to visit.
A recent report warned that insects ‘could vanish by the end of the century’. Here’s why that would cause a collapse of nature.
It’s easy to whip out the fly spray, but our fondness for pesticides can bring knock-on effects such as increased resistance, and harming beneficial insects in and around our homes.
The natural world depends on insects to function, but they may be the next casualty of climate change.
Because insects are an affordable and local food source rich in protein, they can be used as a meat replacement.
Bee brains contain less than one million neurons. Despite this, new research shows the honeybee can use symbols to perform basic maths, including addition and subtraction.
Here are some tips to beat the bite of these bloodsuckers for as long as possible.
Keeping urban habitats such as parks neat and tidy by removing dead wood and leaves is driving the species which live there to extinction.
Believe it or not, I have studied the hairy legs of spiders for years and can give you some definitive answers on this.
Ants have something similar to blood, but it’s called haemolymph. Some insects use it in unusual ways. When threatened by a predator, blister beetles can squirt haemolymph from their knees.
Climate change threatens to cause mass extinctions – but how, exactly? New research suggests male fertility may be the weakest link.
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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Associate Professor, Ecology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Senior Research Associate in Entomology, Lancaster University
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Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University
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Postdoctoral Researcher in Mycology, West Virginia University
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Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Monash University
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Professor of Behavioural Ecology, UCL
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Adjunct associate, CSIRO
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Biodiversity Management Officer, University of Sydney
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Emeritus Professor of Biology, University of Bath
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Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University
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Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology; African-American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
