Insects, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 27, 2021

'Russian doll' set of stomach-bursting parasites released inside butterfly on remote Finnish island

An ecologist's blunder led to the release of a Russian doll set of stomach-bursting parasites onto a remote Finnish island, a new study has revealed. Thirty years ago, when ecologist Ilkka Hanski introduced Glanville fritillary butterflies (Melitaea cinxia) onto the island of Sottunga in the Åland archipelago, he planned to...

Mar 4, 2005

Short a Testicle, Sexually Lopsided Beetles Still Do Their Thing

Some beetles are born with an imbalance rare in nature - they only have one testicle. A new study found that three major groups of beetles, all of the carabid family, lack the usual second testicle. While the beetles get along fine without it, they are violating a major rule...

Jan 18, 2007

Nature's Whitest White Found in Ghostly Beetle

A beetle with scales as pale as a ghost could help engineers come up with super-thin, paper-white paints, new research shows. The long, flat overlapping scales that cover the head, body and legs of the white Cyphochilus beetle, a common sugarcane pest in Southeast Asia, are brighter than milk, pearly...

May 17, 2007

Beetle Breathing Highly Complex, Study Finds

X-rays that effectively peel away the opaque outer-cover off beetles have revealed the bugs have a more complex breathing apparatus at work than previously suspected. Despite their relatively small body size, insects need more than a simple, mini-respiratory system to suck in enough oxygen to carry out basic processes such...

Jun 11, 2007

Spiked Genitals Spur Beetle Evolution

The genitals of male seed beetles are extraordinarily spiny, helping to anchor the males inside females as they attempt to impregnate them. Unfortunately, these spikes damage the females, potentially compromising the entire reproductive mission. Now scientists have discovered an evolutionary arms race with these beetle genitalia, with female genitals growing...

Jun 29, 2007

Escargot Makes a Beetle's Head Swell

Beetle bodies come in two varieties: strong and stout, and extremely slender. Turns out, the distinct physiques make the beetles expert escargot feeders with distinct preferences. Snail-feeding carabid beetles (Damaster blaptoides) living on the islands of the Japanese archipelago show either small or large heads, depending on the size of...

Jan 28, 2008

This Beetle Really Rocks

A new species of beetle that appears as if wearing a tuxedo has been named in honor of the late rock 'n' roll legend Roy Orbison and his widow Barbara. Entomologist Quentin Wheeler of Arizona State University announced the discovery and naming of the beetle, now dubbed Orectochilus orbisonorum, during...

Jan 31, 2012

'Wallflower' Beetles Get Less Action At The Mating Dance

Among a type of beetle, antisocial males get less female action than their better-networked friends. Since the popular males are the better breeders, this sociability seems to be a naturally selected trait, but the researchers studying the forked fungus beetles in a Virginia forest want to know whether it's passed...

Feb 6, 2012

Beetle Sperm Teams Up To Navigate Females' Bodies

The sperm of the male diving beetle is seriously strange: Instead of swimming in the female reproductive tract on their own, individual sperm cells often stick together in pairs, in clusters and even in long chains of hundreds or thousands. Now, a new study finds this weird sperm behavior is...

Apr 13, 2012

Dung Beetle's Poop Preference: Smellier the Better

Dung beetles prefer the smelliest poop they can find, new research on the insects suggests. Odorous dung from omnivores, which eat a diet of both plants and animals, seems to be the most attractive to the beetles. Some of the top choices? Human and chimpanzee dung. This novel research indicates...

Jul 27, 2012

New Beetle Species Found in Remote Arizona Cave

A newfound species of beetle has been discovered in remote caves in Arizona, boasting long antennae and slender legs with hairlike tufts. The beetle, Eleodes wynnei, was named after its discoverer, Northern Arizona University researcher Jut Wynne. Since 2005, Wynne and his colleagues have identified three new genera (the plural...

Aug 13, 2012

Scent of Sex and Death Attracts Young Female Beetles

Hide beetles eat carrion. But the scent of decomposing flesh on its own isn't enough to attract young, virgin females of this species. The perfume must have another ingredient to get their attention: Male-beetle sex pheromones. Hide beetles, known scientifically as Dermestes maculates, are part of the parade of insects...

Aug 29, 2012

Why Beetle Species Outnumber Tuataras

The tree of life does not branch evenly. Some groups, like beetles and flowering plants, contain nearly incomprehensible species diversity, but the overwhelming majority of groups contain far fewer species, writes a team of researchers online Tuesday (Aug. 29) in the journal PLoS Biology. Groups such as tuataras, which are...

Oct 22, 2012

In Images: Dung Beetles Dance on Poop Balls

Nature's cooler (Image credit: Jochen Smolka.)Dung beetles roll up balls of dung to feed their young. Oddly, they often climb on top of these balls and dance around in circles. Scientists studying this mysterious behavior have found a couple reasons behind it, to keep dung beetles cool and to help...

Oct 22, 2012

That's Hot! Beetles Dance on Poop Balls to Keep Cool

Dung beetles can use balls of poo much like air-conditioning units to cool themselves, researchers say. Dung beetles roll up nutritious balls of excrement up to 50 times heavier than their own bodies to feed their young. They roll the balls walking backward, with their heads near the ground. The...