Tag Archives: Insects

Ars Technica 10:45 pm on March 13, 2023
Tags: , animal communication, , , , eusocial insects, Insects, , social learning   

Bees learn to dance and to solve puzzles from their peers

Bumblebees can learn to solve puzzles from experienced peers. Honeybees do the same to learn their waggle dances.

Enlarge / Bumblebees can learn to solve puzzles from experienced peers. Honeybees do the same to learn their waggle dances. (credit: Diego Perez-Lopez, PLoS/CC-BY 4.0)

Social insects like bees demonstrate a remarkable range of behaviors, from working together to build structurally complex nests (complete with built-in climate control) to the pragmatic division of labor within their communities. Biologists have traditionally viewed these behaviors as pre-programmed responses that evolved over generations in response to external factors. But two papers last week reported results indicating that social learning might also play a role.

The first, published in the journal PLoS Biology, demonstrated that bumblebees could learn to solve simple puzzles by watching more experienced peers. The second, published in the journal Science, reported evidence for similar social learning in how honeybees learn to perform their trademark “waggle dance” to tell other bees in their colony where to find food or other resources. Taken together, both studies add to a growing body of evidence of a kind of “culture” among social insects like bees.

“Culture can be broadly defined as behaviors that are acquired through social learning and are maintained in a population over time, and essentially serves as a ‘second form of inheritance,’ but most studies have been conducted on species with relatively large brains: primates, cetaceans, and passerine birds,” said co-author Alice Bridges, a graduate student at Queen Mary University of London who works in the lab of co-author Lars Chittka. “I wanted to study bumblebees in particular because they are perfect models for social learning experiments. They have previously been shown to be able to learn really complex, novel, non-natural behaviors such as string-pulling both individually and socially.”

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#animal-cognition, #animal-communication, #animals, #bees, #biology, #eusocial-insects, #insects, #science, #social-learning

The New York Times 7:21 pm on March 13, 2023
Tags: , Insects, , , ,   

Killer Candy Striper Spiders Prowl Before the Sun Rises

A study of candy-striped spiders feasting on sleeping insects suggests there are many surprising arachnid behaviors still waiting to be discovered.

#animal-behavior, #insects, #research, #spiders, #wasps-insects, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 9:30 pm on March 3, 2023
Tags: , , , Insects, , Schmidt, Justin O (1947- ),   

Justin O. Schmidt, Entomologist Known as ‘King of Sting,’ Dies at 75

Studying the venom of bees, wasps and ants, he was stung hundreds of times and famously ranked the stings in a colorful pain scale index.

#ants, #bees, #deaths-obituaries, #insects, #research, #schmidt-justin-o-1947, #wasps-insects

The New York Times 11:17 pm on March 2, 2023
Tags: , , , Insects, , , , , Skvarla, Michael Dr.,   

‘What Is This Thing?’: How a Jurassic-Era Insect Was Rediscovered

A giant lacewing found at a Walmart in 2012 is being heralded as the first specimen of its kind seen in eastern North America in more than 50 years.

#arkansas, #fayetteville-ark, #inaturalist-mobile-app, #insects, #ozark-mountains, #pennsylvania-state-university, #pollution, #science-and-technology, #skvarla-michael-dr, #united-states

Ars Technica 7:23 pm on February 28, 2023
Tags: , , biomechanical engineering, , , , Insects,   

Watch these glassy-winged sharpshooters fling pee bubbles with anal catapult

Insects called glassy-wing sharpshooters have an “anal stylus” capable of flicking pee droplets at very high speeds.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter drinks huge amounts of water and thus pees frequently, expelling as much as 300 times its own body weight in urine every day. Rather than producing a steady stream of urine, sharpshooters form drops of urine at the anus and then catapult those drops away from their bodies at remarkable speeds, boasting accelerations 10 times faster than a Lamborghini. Georgia Tech scientists have determined that the insect uses this unusual “superpropulsion” mechanism to conserve energy, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

A type of leafhopper, the glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis) is technically an agricultural pest, the bane of California winemakers in particular since the 1990s. It feeds on many plant species (including grapes), piercing a plant’s xylem (which transports water from the roots to stems and leaves) with its needle-like mouth to suck out the sap. The insects consume a lot of sap, and their frequent urination consumes a lot of energy in turn, because of their small size and the sap’s viscosity and negative surface tension (it naturally gets sucked inward). But the sap is about 95 percent water, so there’s not much nutritional content to fuel all that peeing.

“If you were only drinking diet lemonade, and that was your entire diet, then you really wouldn’t want to waste energy in any part of your biological process,” co-author Saad Bhamla of Georgia Tech told New Scientist. “That’s sort of how it is for this tiny organism.”

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#animals, #biology, #biomechanical-engineering, #biomechanics, #biomimicry, #entomology, #insects, #science

The New York Times 10:00 am on February 4, 2023
Tags: , , , , , Insects,   

What’s the Correct Color of Bees? In Austria, It’s a Toxic Topic.

In the Austrian state of Carinthia, where the law favors light-colored local bees, those honey producers judged “too dark” risk eradication.

#agriculture-and-farming, #austria, #bees, #holocaust-and-the-nazi-era, #honey, #insects, #wildlife-die-offs

Ars Technica 7:23 pm on February 1, 2023
Tags: , , , Insects, IUCN, protected areas,   

Won’t somebody please think of the insects?!

image of a yellow and blue butterfly perched on a plant.

Enlarge / This butterfly is also referred to as the Cairns Birdwing. (credit: Jodi Jacobson)

Nearly 17 percent, or 22.5 million square kilometers, of the world’s land now falls within protected areas. Countries have established laws that safeguard these parcels of land—or in some cases, aquatic areas—to ensure that the natural ecosystems and their respective species and functions remain in good health. Creating protected areas has clearly helped some species, like the Asian elephant, survive.

But protected areas around the globe—at least as they stood in 2019—are failing to account for some of the world’s smallest, most vulnerable, and most fundamentally icky denizens: insects. New research sheds light on this issue, suggesting more than three-quarters of known insect species are not adequately protected by current dedicated conservation areas.

According to Shawan Chowdhury, a conservation biologist at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research and one of the paper’s authors, there are also likely many more species of creepy crawlies we don’t know about and that are likely also being failed by existing protected areas.

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#conservation, #data, #ecology, #insects, #iucn, #protected-areas, #science

The New York Times 4:11 pm on November 24, 2022
Tags: , , Insects,   

Are You Really So Different From the Blue Sea Blob?

A call for empathy for strangeness.

#empathy, #fish-and-other-marine-life, #insects, #oceans-and-seas

The New York Times 4:04 pm on November 14, 2022
Tags: , , , , , Insects, , , ,   

While Other Insects Played, This Species Evolved the Blade

Scientists are studying a fruit fly’s sharp organ that helps it lay eggs and eat, hoping to unlock the secrets of herbivorous insects.

#anatomy-and-physiology, #biology-and-biochemistry, #evolution-biology, #fruit-flies, #genetics-and-heredity, #insects, #proceedings-of-the-royal-society-b-journal, #research, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

Ars Technica 10:22 pm on November 1, 2022
Tags: , , , Insects, , ,   

High-speed video captures how cannibalistic mosquito larvae snag their prey

Mosquito larvae under a microscope. Certain predatory species feed on the larvae of their rival mosquito species.

Enlarge / Mosquito larvae under a microscope. Certain predatory species feed on the larvae of their rival mosquito species. (credit: Boonyakiat Chaloemchavalid/Getty Images)

Mosquitos are the bane of many people’s existence, especially since their bites aren’t just annoyingly itchy; they can also spread potentially deadly parasitic diseases. Even the larvae of certain species can be formidable. While most mosquito larvae feed on algae or bacteria and similar microorganisms, some predatory species feed on other insects—including the larvae of other mosquitos. A team of scientists has captured the unique attack methods of these cannibalistic predators on high-speed video, revealing how they capture their prey with lightning-fast strikes, according to a recent study published in the journal Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

Co-author Robert Hancock, a biologist at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, became fascinated by predatory mosquito larvae when he first watched them strike their prey under a microscope during an undergraduate entomology class in college. He was impressed by the sheer speed of the attacks: “The only thing we saw was a blur of action,” he recalled. Scientists have long studied these larvae because they are so efficient at controlling the populations of other mosquito species. Just one predatory larva can devour as many as 5,000 prey larvae before reaching adulthood.

Hancock first attempted to capture the striking behavior of the larvae on 16-millimeter film by jerry-rigging a setup with a microscope and camera back in the 1990s—a process he said resulted in a lot of wasted film, given the blistering speed of the strikes. Now as a college professor, he was able to exploit all the advances in video and microscope technology that have been made since his undergraduate years to learn more about the biomechanics involved.

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#biology, #biomechanics, #entomology, #insects, #mosquitoes, #predator-prey-dynamics, #science

The New York Times 9:39 pm on October 27, 2022
Tags: , , , , Insects, , , , , ,   

Swarms of Insects Can Create Electrical Charges, Study Finds

Large groups of insects can create an electrical charge in the atmosphere comparable to that of storm clouds, a new study finds.

#animal-behavior, #bees, #electric-light-and-power, #grasshoppers, #insects, #iscience-journal, #lightning, #research, #weather, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 9:00 am on October 12, 2022
Tags: , , , , , Insects, ,   

What’s That Oddball Conifer? A Japanese Umbrella Pine.

It may be called a pine, but it isn’t a member of the pine family. And no, those lustrous, oversized needles aren’t plastic.

#birdwatching, #content-type-service, #flowers-and-plants, #forests-and-forestry, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects, #real-estate-and-housing-residential, #trees-and-shrubs

The New York Times 9:00 am on September 28, 2022
Tags: , , Insects,   

Trying to Control Leafminers? Don’t Bother.

Don’t jump to the conclusion that those mysterious marks are evidence of disease. They may be leaf mines or galls — and that’s a good thing.

#flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects, #real-estate-and-housing-residential

The New York Times 9:00 am on September 19, 2022
Tags: , , , Insects,   

At Summer’s End, a Moment of Wild Surprise

As equinox nears, the lovely cycle life is happening just behind the place in my garden where the goldenrod and the asters look so beautiful together.

#butterflies-and-moths, #flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects, #seasons-and-months

The New York Times 9:00 am on August 7, 2022
Tags: , , , Insects, , , , , , , ,   

We Went on a Lanternfly-Killing Rampage. They’re Still Here.

The spotted lanternfly, an invasive pest that ecologists have urged the populace to squish on sight, is back, infesting the New York City area.

#central-park-manhattan-ny, #city-council-nyc, #far-east-south-and-southeast-asia-and-pacific-areas, #insects, #invasive-species, #new-jersey, #new-york-city, #parks-and-recreation-department-nyc, #pennsylvania, #spotted-lanternflies, #staten-island-nyc, #urban-areas

The New York Times 1:27 pm on July 21, 2022
Tags: , , , , , , , , , Insects, ,   

Monarch Butterflies Are Placed on IUCN Red List

Researchers cited climate change and habitat loss. But they also said the public can help give the insects a boost.

#agriculture-and-farming, #animal-migration, #biodiversity, #butterflies-and-moths, #caterpillars, #defoliants-and-herbicides, #endangered-and-extinct-species, #flowers-and-plants, #global-warming, #insects, #international-union-for-conservation-of-nature, #north-america

The New York Times 9:00 am on July 20, 2022
Tags: Brand, Andrew J, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, , , , Insects, ,   

It’s Time to Slow Down and Appreciate Nature’s Tiny Marvels

Grab your iPhone: Andrew Brand wants to show you a side of your garden that you’ve never seen before (and how to photograph it).

#brand-andrew-j, #coastal-maine-botanical-gardens, #content-type-service, #flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects, #photography, #real-estate-and-housing-residential

The New York Times 6:47 pm on June 14, 2022
Tags: , , Insects, iridoid, , nepetalactone, ,   

How Cats Make the Most of Their Catnip High

A new study finds that the feline reaction to catnip and silver vine helps to stave off mosquitoes and other bloodsucking insects.

#animal-behavior, #cats, #insects, #iridoid, #iscience-journal, #nepetalactone, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 9:00 am on June 13, 2022
Tags: , , , , Insects   

Monarch Butterflies Are In Decline. I Wanted to Help.

This is the trouble with trying to help a natural world in so much peril. It’s never entirely clear when it’s right to intervene and when it’s wrong.

#butterflies-and-moths, #caterpillars, #flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects

The New York Times 7:00 am on May 3, 2022
Tags: , , , , , Insects, , , ,   

Deadly Venom From Spiders and Snakes May Also Cure What Ails You

Efforts to tease apart the vast swarm of proteins in venom — a field called venomics — have burgeoned in recent years, leading to important drug discoveries.

#alternative-and-complementary-medicine, #arizona, #deserts, #drugs-pharmaceuticals, #fraser-island-australia, #insects, #research, #scorpions, #snakes, #spiders

Ars Technica 5:00 pm on May 2, 2022
Tags: , , , , , , Insects, ,   

Online retailers are offering rare, endangered bugs

Image of a website that has a specific category for selling rare insects.

When a rare species is a product.

Alive or dead, rare or mundane, bugs are weirdly easy to find for sale online. However, in some cases, the insects or spiders sold through the various e-commerce sites, both niche and large-scale, may be of dubious provenance. Some may be bred and reared in sustainable programs. Others might be taken from wild populations that are at risk, according to new research out of Cornell University that was published last week.

“It’s not always clear… if they’re sustainable or not,” John Losey, a Cornell entomology professor and one of the paper’s authors, told Ars. “There are sites out there that are definitely not providing documentation that what they’re selling is being done sustainably.”

According to Losey, some websites will provide no documentation or proof showing that a rare pinned butterfly specimen or pet tarantula was collected in a way that doesn’t pose a risk for wild populations. Some of them could very well have been reared in a sustainable program, Losey said—there’s just no way to tell.

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#amazon, #bugs, #conservation, #e-commerce, #entomology, #etsy, #insects, #internet, #science

The New York Times 9:00 am on April 13, 2022
Tags: , , , Insects, , ,   

Why You Should Plant a Garden That’s Wasp Friendly

Those wasps you hate? They’re the best organic pest control around. Here’s how to keep them happy (and avoid getting stung).

#bees, #flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects, #real-estate-and-housing-residential, #roach-margaret, #wasps-insects

Ars Technica 8:52 pm on March 21, 2022
Tags: , , , , , Insects,   

“Evolution can occur really, really rapidly”

Image of a fruit fly.

Enlarge / Don’t bother me, I’m busy evolving. (credit: Indrek Lainjärv / EyeEm)

When we think of evolution, we often think of slow, gradual changes made over millions of years. However, new research suggests that the process could be happening quite quickly, driving major changes over the course of a single year in response to seasonal changes.

The paper describing that research was released last week and studies evolution in fruit flies over around 10 generations, with each generation of flies spanning less than a dozen days. While fruit flies are notoriously short-lived, and the distance between their generations is tiny, evolution could be happening quicker than previously anticipated even in longer-lived organisms, according to Seth Rudman, assistant professor in the school of biological sciences at Washington State University and one of the authors of the paper.

“Over the last few decades there has been a growing appreciation that evolution can occur fairly rapidly,” he told Ars.

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#adaptation, #biology, #evolution, #flies, #fruit-flies, #insects, #science

The New York Times 8:14 pm on March 2, 2022
Tags: , Insects, , , Wageningen University and Research Center,   

Insect Trash Could Be a Farmer’s Treasure

Insect feces and exoskeletons can make agriculture more sustainable and produce less waste, scientists say.

#agriculture-and-farming, #insects, #microbiology, #trends-in-plant-science-journal, #wageningen-university-and-research-center, #your-feed-science

Ars Technica 11:00 pm on February 15, 2022
Tags: , , , , Insects, , robber flies, ,   

The robber fly is an aerodynamic acrobat that can catch its prey in midflight

A miniature predatory robber fly (<em>Holcocephala fascia</em>) feeds on a captured rove beetle. A new study reveals that the fly approaches its prey from underneath, aiming for a future meeting point wth the target.

Enlarge / A miniature predatory robber fly (Holcocephala fascia) feeds on a captured rove beetle. A new study reveals that the fly approaches its prey from underneath, aiming for a future meeting point wth the target. (credit: Samuel Fabian)

Robber flies are aerodynamic acrobats, able to spot their prey, dodge around obstacles, and capture smaller insects at high speeds in midflights. Scientists have taken a closer look at how robber flies manage this amazing feat despite having brains on par with a single grain of sand. According to a new paper published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, the flies combine two distinct feedback-based navigation strategies: one that involves intercepting the prey when the view is clear, and another that allows the flies to swerve around any obstacles in their flight path.

One of the challenges in robotics is how to design robots that can navigate cluttered environments—something humans and other animals manage to do instinctively every day. Per the authors, many robotic systems rely upon a kind of path-planning: using sound (sonar) or lasers to send out signals and then detecting the reflections. That data can then be used to build a distance map of the surroundings.

But compared to using simple visual cues (i.e., “reactive methods”), path-planning is a costly approach in terms of energy use. Humans and other animals don’t require elaborate maps or specific knowledge about a target’s location, speed, and other details. We simply react to any relevant stimuli in our environment in real time. Devising navigational behavioral algorithms based on biological systems is thus of great interest to roboticists.

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#aerodynamics, #arthropods, #biology, #biomimicry, #insects, #physics, #robber-flies, #robotics, #science

The New York Times 10:00 am on February 15, 2022
Tags: , , , , Insects,   

The Case for Eating Insects

Climate-conscious cooking means getting creative.

#agriculture-and-farming, #cooking-and-cookbooks, #food, #global-warming, #insects, #your-feed-opinionvideo

The New York Times 7:00 pm on January 7, 2022
Tags: , , , Insects, , , , , ,   

Fossils of a Prehistoric Rainforest Hide in Australia’s Rusted Rocks

The find suggests overlooked rocks across the continent may contain more fossilized surprises.

#australia, #flowers-and-plants, #fossils, #insects, #paleontology, #research, #science-advances-journal, #spiders, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 10:00 am on December 3, 2021
Tags: , , , , Insects, , , , Wading River (NY)   

Meet an Ecologist Who Works for God (and Against Lawns)

A Long Island couple says fighting climate change and protecting biodiversity starts at home. Or rather, right outside their suburban house.

#environment, #flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #global-warming, #insects, #invasive-species, #landscaping, #lawns, #wading-river-ny

The New York Times 9:00 pm on November 10, 2021
Tags: , , , , Insects, , ,   

Bees Make This “Screaming” Sound When Attacked By Hornets

When threatened by giant hornets, Asian honeybees use their wings to make a noise that sounds like a cry for help.

#animal-behavior, #bees, #hanoi-vietnam, #hornets-insects, #insects, #royal-society-open-science-journal, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

Ars Technica 9:09 pm on September 13, 2021
Tags: Insects, , , ,   

Nikon Small World microscopy contest 2021: A few of our favorite images

Image of a green object next to the head of an insect.

Enlarge / A small cnidarian called a hydra (green) has attached itself to the cocoon of a caddisfly. (credit: Yen Fook Chew)

Microscopy is essential to many areas of science. We use it to look at everything from the small devices we fabricate to the tiny structures inside cells. And microscopy wouldn’t function without input from many areas of science. Chemistry helps with stains, dyes, and sample preparation. Physics determines what’s possible with different forms of optics. And fields like biology and geology tell us which samples can give us valuable information. Combined, these tools give us a nearly infinite suite of options for looking at the world of the small.

With the right choices among those options, a microscope can do far more than just advance science; it can create objects of art. Each year, when Nikon releases the results of its annual microscopy competition, we struggle for new superlatives to describe the images. This year is no exception. So rather than struggling with words, we’ll get straight to the images.

The rock. We tend to think of microscopes as tools that examine living matter, revealing details that are critical to understanding cells and the organisms built from them. But chemicals and minerals also have features that aren’t always visible to the naked eye and can be critical to their behavior as well. We’ve always loved close-ups of crystals and rocks, and this year’s collection of images contains a surfeit of them.

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#insects, #microscopy, #minerals, #nikon, #science

The New York Times 8:29 pm on September 13, 2021
Tags: , , , Insects, , ,   

More ‘Murder Hornets’ Are Being Found and Destroyed

Officials hunting the Asian giant hornet in Washington State have so far destroyed three nests, and plan to eradicate a fourth — very carefully.

#animal-and-plant-health-inspection-service, #blaine-wash, #hornets-insects, #insects, #invasive-species, #pacific-northwestern-states-us, #washington-state

The New York Times 9:00 am on September 13, 2021
Tags: , , Insects, ,   

The Signs of a Changing Climate in my Own Backyard

The ecosystem in my own yard brings is showing signs of both trouble and hope. 

#animal-migration, #birds, #insects, #nashville-tenn, #summer-season

The New York Times 3:39 pm on September 9, 2021
Tags: , , , , Insects, , , ,   

Milkweed Butterflies Are More Murderous Than They Look

This behavior by the fluttering insects was so unusual that scientists had to invent a new word to describe it.

#butterflies-and-moths, #caterpillars, #ecology-journal, #indonesia, #insects, #research, #wildlife-sanctuaries-and-nature-reserves, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 10:40 pm on August 9, 2021
Tags: , , , Insects, , , , University of British Columbia,   

This Flower Hides a Secret: It’s Actually a Carnivore

That this perennial wildflower digests trapped insects suggests that other plants’ appetites for animals may be overlooked.

#canada, #evolution-biology, #flowers-and-plants, #insects, #pacific-northwestern-states-us, #proceedings-of-the-national-academy-of-sciences, #research, #university-of-british-columbia, #your-feed-science

Ars Technica 6:39 pm on July 30, 2021
Tags: , , Insects, ,   

Evolutionary chaos as butterflies, wasps, and viruses have a three-way war

Image of a moth

Enlarge (credit: iStock / Getty Images)

We’re currently watching—often in horror—what happens as a virus and its hosts engage in an evolutionary arms race. Measures to limit infectivity and enhance immunity are selecting for viral strains that spread more readily and avoid at least some of the immune response. All of that is easily explained through evolutionary theory and has been modeled mathematically.

But not all evolutionary interactions are so neat and binary. Thursday’s edition of Science included a description of a three-way fight between butterflies, the wasps that parasitize them, and the viruses that can infect both species. To call the interactions that have ensued “complicated” is a significant understatement.

Meet the combatants

One of the groups involved is the Lepidoptera, the butterflies and moths. They are seemingly the victims in this story because, like any other species, they can be infected by viruses. Many of these viral infections can be fatal, although some kill the animal quickly, and others take their time. Since they often strike during the larval/caterpillar stages, the viruses need other hosts to transfer the viruses to other victims.

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#biology, #evolution, #insects, #science, #viruses

The New York Times 12:17 am on July 8, 2021
Tags: , , Insects, Japanese beetle,   

Japanese Beetles Are Back: How to Deal With Them

Here’s what to do if you find them in your garden. (Hint: Forget the traps.)

#content-type-service, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects, #japanese-beetle, #real-estate-and-housing-residential

The New York Times 9:00 am on June 21, 2021
Tags: , , , , , Insects   

For the Butterflies — and the Rest of Us

Stop using pesticides, in your butterfly garden and everywhere else.

#bees, #butterflies-and-moths, #endangered-and-extinct-species, #flowers-and-plants, #gardens-and-gardening, #insects

The New York Times 9:00 am on June 18, 2021
Tags: Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Movie), , , , , , , , , Insects, , ,   

The Biologist Who Fell to Earth

At 17, Juliane Diller was the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon. Fifty years later she still runs Panguana, a research station founded by her parents in Peru.

#aguirre-the-wrath-of-god-movie, #airlines-and-airplanes, #amazon-jungle, #animals, #aviation-accidents-safety-and-disasters, #bavaria-germany, #biodiversity, #germany, #herzog-werner, #insects, #lightning, #peru, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 3:43 pm on May 28, 2021
Tags: Balcombe, Jonathan, , , Insects, Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World's Most Successful Insects (Book)   

There Is So Much You Don’t Know About Being a Fly

In “Super Fly” Jonathan Balcombe explores the world of the most annoying creature, moving beyond the buzz and drone.

#balcombe-jonathan, #books-and-literature, #flies, #insects, #super-fly-the-unexpected-lives-of-the-worlds-most-successful-insects-book

The New York Times 9:00 am on April 19, 2021
Tags: , , , Insects,   

We Were Born To Be Wild

Earth Day is a reminder that we are living creatures all the same.

#earth-day, #environment, #finches-birds, #insects, #nashville-tenn

The New York Times 4:01 pm on April 5, 2021
Tags: , Insects, , , , ,   

Let Us Now Praise Tiny Ants

Even in the densest human habitations, there are orders of magnitude more ants than there are of us, doing the hard work of making our crumbs disappear.

#books-and-literature, #insects, #new-york-city, #photography, #wilson-edward-o, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 10:00 am on March 7, 2021
Tags: , , , , Insects, , ,   

The Power of Playing Dead

A study shows that pretending to be immobile — sometimes for an hour or more — helps larvae of insects called antlions outlast hungry predators.

#animal-behavior, #biology-and-biochemistry, #biology-letters-journal, #evolution-biology, #insects, #research, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

TechCrunch 3:06 pm on March 2, 2021
Tags: , , Insects, ,   

MIT’s insect-sized drones are built to survive collisions

Insects are a lot of things – but fragile they’re not. Sure, most can’t withstand the full force of a human foot, but for their size, they’re evolve to be extremely rugged and resilient. Insect-sized technology, on the other hand, is general another story.

That’s certainly been the historic case with scaled-down drones. The components, in particular, tend to become more fragile the more you shrunk them. In particular, motors both lose efficiency and weaken the smaller they get.

Earlier models from the MIT lab have relied on rigid ceramic-based materials. They did the job in terms of getting the robot airborne, but as the lab notes, “foraging bumblebees endure a collision about once every second.” In other words, if you’re going to build something this small, you need to ensure that it doesn’t break down the first time it comes into contact with something.

“The challenge of building small aerial robots is immense,” says MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen.

New drone models, which the lab describes as resembling, “a cassette tape with wings,” are built with soft actuators, made from carbon nanotube-coated rubber cylinders. The actuators elongate when electricity is applied at a rate up to 500 times a second. Doing this causes the wings to beat and the drones to take flight.

The drones are extremely light weight, as well, coming in at around 0.6 grams – basically as much as a big bumble bee. There are still limitations to these early models. Namely, the system currently requires them to be hardwired to deliver the necessary charge – as seen in the below gif. It can be a bit of a mess. Other modifications are being made, as well, including a more nature-inspired dragonfly shape being used for newer prototypes.

Image Credits: MIT

Should such the lab be able to to produce such a robot untethered with imaging capabilities and a decent sized battery, the potential applications are immense for the tiny drones. You’ve got everything from simple inspections currently being handled by larger models to pollination and search and rescue.

DJI launches an all-in-one FPV drone system

#drone, #hardware, #insects, #mit, #robotics

The New York Times 7:42 pm on February 17, 2021
Tags: , , , Insects, , ,   

How to Stop Moths? Blickling Hall Tries Bringing in Wasps

Blickling Hall, a centuries-old building in England, is trying to protect its priceless tapestries, carpets and furniture with thousands and thousands of microscopic wasps.

#butterflies-and-moths, #great-britain, #historic-buildings-and-sites, #insects, #national-trust-group-england, #norfolk-england, #wasps-insects

The New York Times 4:00 pm on February 6, 2021
Tags: , , , , Insects, , , ,   

Invasive Insects and Diseases Are Killing Our Forests

America wasn’t ready for the pandemic. And it isn’t ready for the next contagion to strike our woodlands.

#agriculture-department, #epidemics, #forest-service, #forests-and-forestry, #insects, #international-trade-and-world-market, #invasive-species, #trees-and-shrubs, #united-states

The New York Times 3:48 am on February 4, 2021
Tags: , , Insects, Marrable, Joel, , ,   

Family of Man Attacked by Fire Ants at V.A. Facility Before His Death Sues U.S.

Joel Marrable, an Air Force veteran, was largely bedridden by cancer and “incapable” of defending himself when ants attacked him at a Veterans Affairs facility, his family said.

#atlanta-ga, #deaths-fatalities, #insects, #marrable-joel, #suits-and-litigation-civil, #veterans, #veterans-affairs-department

The New York Times 6:03 pm on January 19, 2021
Tags: , Insects, , Papers in Paleontology, , , , ,   

A Surprise in a 50 Million-Year-Old Assassin Bug Fossil: Its Genitals

Scientists were surprised to find the insect’s preserved penis, which suggests it was an unknown species.

#fossils, #insects, #paleontology, #papers-in-paleontology, #penis, #reproduction-biological, #research, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 12:01 am on January 13, 2021
Tags: , , , Insects, , Millipedes, , , , , , ,   

Millipede Swarms Once Stopped Japanese Trains in Their Tracks

A team of scientists say they have figured out the cicada-like life cycles of the many-legged arthropods.

#animal-behavior, #arthropods, #cicadas-insects, #insects, #japan, #millipedes, #railroads, #reproduction-biological, #research, #royal-society-open-science-journal, #seasons-and-months, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 12:00 am on December 16, 2020
Tags: , , , , , Insects, , ,   

He’s Too Quiet for His Mate to Hear Him. So He Makes a Megaphone.

Some tree crickets amplify their calls with leaves, giving them an opportunity to mate that they otherwise might miss.

#animal-behavior, #bangalore-india, #biology-and-biochemistry, #crickets, #evolution-biology, #insects, #proceedings-of-the-royal-society-b-journal, #research, #your-feed-science

The New York Times 7:00 pm on December 9, 2020
Tags: , , , , , Insects, , , Mattila, Heather Rose, , , , , , ,   

Menaced by Murder Hornets, Bees Decorate Their Hives With Poop

Asian honeybees have exhibited what scientists call a form of tool use to deter attacks by giant predatory wasps.

#animal-behavior, #bees, #biology-and-biochemistry, #feces, #hornets-insects, #insects, #invasive-species, #manure, #mattila-heather-rose, #public-library-of-science-plos, #research, #vietnam, #wasps-insects, #wellesley-college, #your-feed-animals, #your-feed-science